A collaborative project between German electro-pop crew The Notwist and avant garde hip hop crews Themselves and Subtle, 13 & God have just announced they will be reforming and releasing a new album on May 17 via seminal experimental hip hop label Anticon, with Europe seeing a May 6 release on The Notwist’s own Alien Transistor label. The album to be titled Own Your Ghost, is the follow up to their 2005 self titled debut, and was recorded in Oakland, with a live feed running to Subtle member Dax Pierson‘s bedroom as well as in the Notwist’s studio in Weilheim, Germany.
The band which is led by legendary out there rapper Dose One, with his perennial beatsmtih collaborator Jel manning the MPC, are one of the most forward thinking and interesting groups making music in hip hop today. Dose delivers spitfire dada lyricism over beats that sound more at home on a film score than in a club, the MC signing as much as he raps.
13 & God’s debut was a landmark release in regards to pushing back the boundaires of hip hop. Existing more in the realm of experimental pop that anything else, if you’re tired of the same old hip hop styles, this is a band well worth checking out as they leave no stone unturned in the quest to subvert convention and reinvent themselves and the genre of hip hop.
If you’re unfamiliar here are some songs to get acquainted with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37U_3uVFSCk&feature=related
