Armand Hammer: Shrines | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- As America sees societal pillars crumble, it's only fitting last Friday saw a double release of cutting-edge hardcore hip-hop. The New Releases Show already covered RTJ4, a continuation of Killer Mike and El-P's anarchic call to arms atop dystopian boom-bap, but there's another two-man team on the block. Armand Hammer was birthed in the ashes of El-P's Definitive Jux, a label which practically defined New York's underground throughout the 2000s. Elucid and Billy Woods are city veterans who've come to embody a powerful new voice since forming in 2013.

Where Run The Jewels shout to be heard, Billy and Elucid are content to bury messages beneath tightly packed flows and layered metaphor. It's only through relentless artistic momentum that they've started to garner attention, with Shrines following a landslide of Elucid projects this year and two landmark Woods solo records in 2019. This is the duo's fourth release and their most coded effort yet, sharpened cuts of abstracted poetry pierce the colourful menagerie of assembled beats.

Where 2018's Paraffin leaned on Elucid's production to conjure a textured, almost industrial backdrop for the duo's doomsaying, Shrines is immediately brighter. The record opens on an Earl Sweatshirt beat, infectiously looped strings present a lush bed for Pink Siifu's contributing chorus. Followup tracks Solarium and Charms are similarly stunning, the latter built around stuttering jazz flute to establish a sense of surreal escapism.

"Tumble out the ether, my blank verse

Wild jungle out the speaker, rare earths/

Every rabbi wonder, will his golem work?/

Every golem wonder if they was the first/

Lurch, cursed"

Billy Woods - Charms

Elucid's verses are notably more expressive, penning flows which dart around disjointed production to frame scattered observations. I've never enjoyed his style next to Woods' matter-of-fact delivery, but the combination is much improved atop these esoteric beats. Billy continues to reign as one of New York's most commanding lyricists, employing a style of writing far more aligned with his recent solo records in its consciously personal approach.

As the album progresses we're treated to a grander spectrum of sampled instrumentation, moving through grittier guitar cuts like Leopards to reach the ethereal vocal features of Frida and Ramses. Quelle Chris' appearance on the former is easily Shrines' best guest verse, his quirky triplet flows outshining even Earl Sweatshirt's predictable contribution on the latter track. Inconsistencies aside, these collaborations are some of Armand Hammer's most cohesive, trading minor drops in quality for a more engaging listen overall.

I've previously viewed Armand Hammer albums as a compromise between the duo's respective styles, grounding Billy in punchier concepts while Elucid flounders in attempted abstraction. Shrines sees both members uncover new artistic territory, broadening their scope to encompass more than what either are capable of alone. I'll be unpacking this record for weeks to come, it's hardcore hip-hop that's uncompromising in ambition and depth.

- Boddhi Farmer.
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