– THE MILITARY COUP –

Surprisingly NOT a cover of Toni Braxton’s 2005 slow jam, also called Trippin’, Ohio-born rapper Toni Sauna (AKA Anthony Mills) releases his first single under the moniker.

However, this isn’t our boy’s first disco. One half of the jazz/hip-hop cross over duo Wildcookie, Mills claims to have written over 1,000 songs and recorded well over 100 studio and live albums in his career, performing with the likes of Harry Belafonte’s All-Star Band, Amy Winehouse, Leela James and Maxi Priest to name but a few.

So, suffice to say, he’s got previous.

And yet, Trippin’ truly presents us with something fresh from Sauna.

Produced by Australian Georgia Anne Muldrow-remixer Inkswel, the track features a prominent Hammond organ over trap beats. And while it maintains its inherent jazziness, it also goes far darker, far more moody, much more oblique.

And this is matched by Sauna’s own far deeper, straighter rap delivery. It’s quite the departure from the falsetto-voiced singer who defined his own previous music as “anti-testosterone”.

“Toni Sauna lurked in the heart of Anthony Mills for all these years” says Mills. “The sweet massage of singing added serpentine fire to his MC tone… Everyone who asked, ‘why don’t you rap?’… OMFG hard bars spoken ever so softly are here”.

The double A-Side Trippin’ / Irresistible is out now through Def Presse.

MORE FROM THIS WEEK’S MIX

J.LAMOTTA: BACK IN TOWN
Y LA BAMBA: GABRIEL
STEAM DOWN: FREE MY SKIN
MICHAEL KIWANUKA: LIGHT

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 –