Explosion Robinson

Coming at us with some of the more original sounds to surface from the music industry as of late, Stephen Herman delivers his first project since leaving Sukpatch. Under the name of Explosion Robinson, Herman serves up some serious rump-shaking funk and large-sized hip-hop beats. Keeping a comical theme throughout the mix, The Luxury Leader weaves samples of white-trash cussing on Jerry Springer and instructional videos into keyboard-heavy cuts. Explosion Robinson tends to excel when he really strips down the tracks to the basics, such as the initial spacy keys that begin "Grind System" that are slowly built with a foot-stomping pace. "Liberation Jumpsuit" and "French Jacuzzi Dub" are also good examples that less is more, adding very few ingredients into the song's blend yet still becoming stronger than a mish-mash of noises and samples. Tracks like this are much more easy to swallow upon the initial listening of The Luxury Leader, but once you become accustomed to Herman's more bizarre songwriting you soon open up to the other half of the record. Definitely worth a spin just for bringing something fresh and original to the table.