The minute I heard Montreal’s experimental prog psych group Atsuko Chiba’s standalone single, “Quick Infant Guilt,” I craved more hip-hop—more hip-hop under their darkened kaleidoscopic lens.
Lead singer/guitarist/synth player, Karim Lakhdar must have heard my desire, or perhaps he always new he wanted to spit rhymes because he is now delivering his spin on the genre with his solo project, Boutique Feelings, signaling the first-ever hip-hop artist on Mothland.
Today we are welcomed by his debut single “Sundried Autumn,” a track that feels a bit like A Tribe Called Quest meets Mogwai, if fronted by someone like Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha. The song dabbles in psychedelic trip-hop but contains a few classic boom-bap samples. It’s weird, but not too weird for any casual hip-hop listener, and it has enough interesting instrumentation to hold your interest. The thematic impetus focuses on proving oneself to the masses and yourself—a perfect debut saying “I am new, and here to stay.”
Photo by Aabid Youssef
“Sundried Autumn” comes with a trippy music video made up of AI-generated imagery, a 3D kaleidoscope, and analog effects, edited together by Atusko Chiba’s insane drummer and projectionist extraordinaire, Anthony Piazza. As with every release from Mothland, there are extensive plans to release follow-up singles and a debut EP from Boutique Feelings sometime in the new year.
