13 & God

When the gentlemen of Themselves and the Notwist first united in 2005 to create a geographically unlikely (Oakland/Germany) mash-up of outsider hip-hop and nervous electro-rock, the results were the optimum sum of the individual parts. On this follow-up, that sum is far exceeded. In a quest for meaning within modern confusion, the mix of Markus Acher's minimalist, oblique pronouncements with DoseOne's maximalist, twitchy delivery leaves you shot from both sides. The acoustic woodwinds and strings from the old world camp mesh seamlessly with broken colonial technologies to house a mournful core within the sizzling jitter of excess information. Unlike their debut's stylistic back-and-forth, both groups dip their fingers in every turn of the flow to create collective swirls. Own Your Ghost wins with a rare combination of velocity and depth to track and tackle these troubled times.