New Raider Klan mixtape a show of sinister strength
Last year the KLVN dropped their gritty 2.7.5 Greatest Hits Vol 1 that was an essential, if intimidatingly indigestible, collection of gothic, 90s-style, Three 6 influenced hip-hop that acted as both a catalogue and showcase of the talent surrounding 4AD-signed Spaceghostpurrp.
Far from simply replicating SGP's smoggy, hallucinatory and doom-laced productions on Mysterious Phonk (His 4AD LP) or previous tapes such as Black God, the crew tape reassuringly laid out a strong hand of rappers and producers who shared a specific aesthetic rather than slavishly adhering to the successful formula of their leader.
So, no powerfully mystical cuts that matched Purrp's grim masterpiece Bringing Tha Phonk but also none that really tried. Southern in style, skrewed from inception and gleefully corrosive, 2.7.5 Greatest Hits Vol 1 was an impressive landmark for the collective.
BRK Greatest Hits Volume 2 dropped in March, giving KLVN fiends another feast to force down and make sense of. To be fair, many tracks have appeared in other forms and related mixtapes (the Klvn are nothing if not productive) but hearing them collected does help in making sense of the last 7 months of activity.
The tape reaffirms what you knew before: Denzel Curry's flow sticks out as the most accomplished, Amber London's attitude and presence is compelling but rationed, SGP's tracks are culled from older mixtapes and the Klvn rever DJ Skrew and Three 5 Mafia.
Few standouts post-date the first volume of Greatest Hits but, to be fair, this isn't a chronological release that records and compiles recent highs or notable experiments, more an actual Greatest Hits Volume 2: no new material, just the stuff that didn't fit on Volume 1.
Different works stick out (such as Eddy Baker's alarming similarity to Tyler) than before but, ultimately, you probably already have a lot of these tracks or have heard them via the twitter feed. Still, a decent recontextualisation that acts as sharp reminder of how much quality material the group have produced.
Should BRK enter the studio and, under the guiding hand of SGP's productions, produce a definitive commercial release, they've got a vast repository of talent to draw from so.
