BROTHERS HAND MIRROR.

I’ve become rather transfixed by the work of Grant Gronewold, also known as HTML Flowers, Melbourne rap superstar and zine maker and stick’n’poke tattoo artist and poet and everything else creative. I follow him on tumblr, and his work has, in part, kept me going on with my PhD when times got a little dire earlier on this year.

So it’s for this reason that I’m a little shitty at myself for not jumping right onto this the day it came out. You see, as well as producing his own music alongside everything else, HTML Flowers also has this rap group. And it features another of my faves, Oscar Key Sung, one half of Oscar + Martin and excellent solo dude in his own right. So when it dawned on me a few hours ago that the new Brothers Hand Mirror EP had dropped (thanks to mate Tommy from Sounddoc for the heads up) I quickly jumped on to give it a download. And yeah, it’s as solid as ever. The work that these two put together is always going to be interesting. From Oscar’s really innovative production style and killer choruses to Grant’s weird and wonderful sense of flow and lyrical imagery, the EP is nothing short of being a 2013 standout, something that will definitely make my end of year list. And even at just three tracks long, I feel comfortable writing that.

As an example of just how cool this release is, I’ve got the opening track below. ‘I’m Still Real’ puts a minimal take on a what could easily be a rap anthem, with Grant’s lyrics calling for us to unite in everything that sets us apart.

If you dig, then you should definitely grab the Picture Tape EP now from their bandcamp. It’s up as a free download too, so there’s really no excuse.

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Miks