Audio By Carbonatix
The travel bug bit Stereo Typed hard on the Phoenix hip-hop trio’s debut full-length. As the album title suggests, these guys get around — but they’re more globe trekkers with a message than bling-seeking jet-setters, delivering political criticism (with minimalist bass grooves on “Energy Raw Power”), social consciousness (weaving words around seductive flute cuts on “Invasion”), and a close-knit community vibe (with generous Arizona name-dropping on “Funky Intermission”) along with their creative beats. Made up of MCs Beatnic the Enforcer and Ame Doogan, and DJ Blesd1, with special guests Courdek, Be, Ohm, and Anglo, Stereo Typed dabbles in time travel and space exploration on the earlier part of the 19-track disc, with a spacy, static-blurred intro, echoey guitar samples fit for a surreal David Lynch flick (“Flatlines”), and hallucinatory, virtuoso scratching (“Walking Through Dimensions”). Elsewhere, things come down to Earth with moody, acoustic cuts that sound like vintage jazz on two exceptional tracks, “Nothing More” and “Shrug It Off.” We dare you not to dance.
