Your new favourite frantic album: On his third album »ANIMALS« (and his début on Warp), Kassa Overall punishes various rhythms and beats. Jazz meets hip-hop. In a good way, though, that massages your brain with words. Avant-garde not as an end in itself, but as a way of seeing oneself. What other choice is there? Kassa Overall, drummer, MC and producer all rolled into one, builds such an insistent beat on »Clock Ticking«, and rappers Danny Brown and Wiki let loose over it. (Lil B, Shabazz Palaces, Theo Croker and others also feature on the album.) »So Happy« is a bit more relaxed, also thanks to the piano, until the strings sink the whole thing and everything tips over into obscurity. But everything stays manageable, unlike, say, »Still Ain’t Find Me», which flirts with free jazz.
Sure, »ANIMALS« is not an easy album, it’s more a case of Kassa Overall challenging the audience. But isn’t that exactly what we want? Finally an album that keeps us busy? That lingers? These twelve tracks sound like nothing else out there. The categories of hip-hop and jazz also dissolve into each other the more you listen to this record. Frantic? Yes, everything glints and glimmers. In the end, it’s your own head that asks for it, this remedy for inner peace, to finally feel something again.
