Moka Only & Def 3

Now that Vancouver musician/MC Moka Only is no longer tied down to a group or label, he’s once again free to take up his role as "the most prolific.” This time it’s a collaboration with Regina rapper Def 3. The result is an album of comfortable Moka Only-style songs about travel, girls and hip-hop with plenty of dirty samples, smooth production and singsong hooks, with a few quirky, catchy tunes for good measure. Frankly, it’s these quirky songs that are the most interesting, like album apex "Eat a Bomb,” a joust-ready medieval jam, or "Mumble in the Jungle,” with its freaked-out flute sample. Unfortunately, like many of the album’s 15 songs, they’re just too damn short. Most end up as one verse from each MC, a chorus or two and then it’s quickly onto the next jam. I guess that’s just the part of the recording process "the two Dannys” call "just fucking around” ("F**kn Around”). While more song structure would have been nice, Dog River is a solid summer album just in time for the fall.