"Cellar Door" are supposedly the most phonetically beautiful words in the English language. Cellar Door: Terminus Ut Exordium on the other hand, is more of a gnarled beauty, like a dented Ferrari or a swan with prison tats. Brooklyn duo AK and Issa Gold float backwards here in some respects, towards their first mixtape's psychedelic undercurrent and away from the bass-y bangers of Lords of Flatbush.
Of course, that's not to say that there are no bangers here — check out "Incandescent" blaring from a Honda Civic in your neighbourhood soon — but it's the lysergic tracks that make this album. "Luminescence," with its menacing yet poignant breakneck raps, has to be up there for opening track of the year, while "Felicity" is all you need to leave the earth's atmosphere. Cellar Door seems to have given the Underachievers space to breathe, think and spit the transcendental lyricism that set them apart in the first place. They've been ones to watch for a while, now they're ones to turn loose. If left to their own devices, these two could do great things.
(Brainfeeder)Of course, that's not to say that there are no bangers here — check out "Incandescent" blaring from a Honda Civic in your neighbourhood soon — but it's the lysergic tracks that make this album. "Luminescence," with its menacing yet poignant breakneck raps, has to be up there for opening track of the year, while "Felicity" is all you need to leave the earth's atmosphere. Cellar Door seems to have given the Underachievers space to breathe, think and spit the transcendental lyricism that set them apart in the first place. They've been ones to watch for a while, now they're ones to turn loose. If left to their own devices, these two could do great things.