– THE MILITARY COUP –

My crowning achievement as a father thus far is that my two-year old daughter is a massive fan of Madvillain. Every time she sees the image of MF DOOM come up on Spotify, she points out ‘the monster’ who’s earned said nickname despite – apparently – not frightening her at all.

On Giannis, DOOM’s fellow ‘illest villain’ Madlib returns with another familiar partner in crime, rapper Freddie Gibbs and, as with DOOM’s mask, the only thing scary about the track is just how damn good it is.

Named after NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, the track fundamentally revolves around a loop that brings to mind Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and is just as eerie as the 70s horror flick with which the latter has become synonymous.

However, the track is elevated by the appearance of Anderson .Paak. Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a massive fan of Oxnard’s finest anyway but here he really does add a melodic heart to the track that raises it above a lot of the material on the album from which this comes.

Said album is titled Bandana and is out now through Keep Cool / RCA Records.

MORE FROM THIS WEEK’S MIX

BROOKLYN FUNK ESSENTIALS: FUNK AIN’T OVA
JHENÉ AIKO: TRIGGER PROTECTION MANTRA
KARL HECTOR AND THE MALCOUNS: ORANGE MAN
IBRAHIM MAALOUF: S3NS

P.S. You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –