German Hip Hop on this blog? Well sure, why not! Do I need to remind you again what a dilettante I am? I don’t know much about hip hop but, I listened to quite a bit of it when it first began, back in the days of The Sugar Hill Gang and then on to LL Cool J and Queen Latifah. So I guess that gives me as much authority to give my lofty opinion on the genre as much as any other type of music. Which isn’t saying much! I do hope you don’t come to this blog for any real music critique or serious ranking of specific albums against some standard of what is “good.”  I only share with you what I like and tell you why, it’s the thing I feel I can do as a non-musician with limited knowledge of popular music in this corner of the blogosphere. And I’m very grateful for your input, darlings… please do feel free to tell me when you think I’m full of shit!

Now back to the Ancient Astronauts, who are Kabanjak and Dogu hailing from Cologne, Germany. I’m intrigued with We Were To Answer, the bits I’ve heard of this eclectic album remind me of that early hip-hop style, but with a generous twist of modern noise, rock, jazz and god-knows-what else thrown in for good measure! I’ve been promised a review copy for next week, I’ll let you know what the rest of it is like. For now please enjoy Came Running and anticipate the album, coming out June 9 on Switchstance Recordings. Ancient Astronauts have collaborated with Bootie Brown and Imani of legendary hip hop group The Pharcyde, Azeem, Tippa Irie, Bajka, Phat Old Mamas, Ulf Stricker, Raashan Ahmad and Entropik for thier debut; it promises to be interesting at the very least!
photo credit: Martin Morsch