KA, Orpheus vs. The Sirens  
KA
Orpheus vs. The Sirens
USA 1xLP 
Label: Obol for Charon Records
Release Year: 2018
Style: Hip-Hop & R'n'B
 
  Tracks  
  Sirens 3:14
Fate 3:08
Orpheus 4:20
Atlas 2:56
Argo 3:26
Golden Fleece 2:22
The Punishment of Sisyphus 3:23
Hades 3:17
Oedipus 3:46
Companion of Artemis
 
  In a twist, the Brownsville rapper projects the streetwise narratives of his youth through the lens of Greek mythology—an audacious move, but his hypnotic voice and evocative writing pull it off.

History is likely to look kindlier upon Ka than contemporary audiences do. At a time when rap can seem overrun by teenaged goofballs with technicolor dreadlocks—each with their own signature ad-lib—Ka is an anachronism. He’s a 46-year-old New York City firefighter whose intricate lyrics can sound less like rap than arcane incantation. To enjoy his music is to feel like a member of a shrouded and especially dusty religious order; every year or two he emerges from his aerie (okay, it’s a fire station) to deliver an album to be pored over in the darkest hours. With Orpheus vs. the Sirens, he’s added another fascinating chapter to his nighttime grimoire.

There’s an epic (in the literary sense) quality to Ka’s storytelling. Because he’s decades removed from his roguish childhood, his recounting of Brownsville, Brooklyn has an aged aura—it’s all perspective, no immediacy. His late-life (for a rapper) discography, which began with 2008’s Iron Works, can feel akin to Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn”: Every Brownsville moment listeners hear is a small part of a mostly unrecorded story, with Ka doing his best to re-apprehend long-since-faded happiness and ambient, resonant trauma.

It makes sense, then, that Orpheus vs. the Sirens adds a patina of Greek mythology to his personal chronicles. If that concept sounds pretentious or overbearing, well, it would be for most other rappers. But Ka—who, along with producer Animoss, goes by the name of Hermit and the Recluse for this project—is less interested in a grand, public display of intellect than he is in altering the angle from which he views his life: What if, instead of leading his own (uniquely American) life, he’s lead a life of mythological struggle, selflessness, and triumph? He was raised in Brooklyn when it was fire-scarred and rubble-strewn and, in repurposing some of Western literature’s foundational motifs, he seizes some of that immense power for himself.

Orpheus vs. the Sirens opens with a succinct summation of Ka’s beliefs: “I think it’s fine, to relinquish mine, for the life of our seeds/For the weak moves these dudes eat your food like Harpies/Not just car thieves, large pleas, came home hardened murderers/By the death toll would’ve guessed the threshold was guarded by Cerberus” (“Sirens”). Later, on “Golden Fleece,” he compares the hot-blooded restlessness and violence of Brownsville to Jason and the Argonauts retrieving a winged ram’s hide from a tree guarded by a dragon. And, before Citizen Cope’s coda on “Hades,” Ka, world-weary to the bitter end, raps in a near-whisper, “Once empty bellies are full, it houses greed/Between you and me, every knock ain’t opportunity/I hate the maybes/So wake the ladies and take the babies, in case it’s Hades.”

When Ka produced for himself, as he did on Grief Pedigree and The Night’s Gambit, he made sparse, sepulchral instrumentals that utilized drums sparingly if at all. This became the cudgel with which his critics assailed him: His beats sometimes lacked drums, thus his music lacked momentum, thus he was boring. No such cudgel exists here. Orpheus vs. the Sirens was produced entirely by Animoss, whose instrumentals deftly complement the intricacy and tension of Ka’s narrative. His samples are full of vibrating guitars, sorrowful organs, and cascading drums. They’re rich without being busy, artful without being overbearing.

And the same is true for the whole of the album. Orpheus vs. the Sirens has an exceedingly rare artistic clarity which rings sharp and pure like a Tibetan singing bowl. Here, Ka’s age works in his favor: In a genre overflowing with intemperate youth, he is a wizened, patient sage burdened only by memories of a Brooklyn past and volumes of arcane incantations for his shrouded, dusty devout.

review by Pitchfork
 
      Wish List  
  Price: CHF 50.00   Currently not on stock!
Please check back later or call us for more information:
+41 (0)43 322 02 04
 
  Releases of the same artist  
  Kaleb Brown, Strange Dreams  
Kaleb Brown
Strange Dreams
[Organik Recordings]
USA 7inch  Wish List
CHF 13.00 Add To Cart
 
  Kaldirons, You And Me Baby  
Kaldirons
You And Me Baby
[Twinight]
USA 7inch  Wish List
CHF 11.00 Restocking!
 
  Kaleta & ZoZo Afrobeat, Get Up  
Kaleta & ZoZo Afrobeat
Get Up
[Tramp]
GBR 7inch  Wish List
CHF 15.00 Restocking!
 
  Breakage, Run 'Em Out ft. Roots Manuva  
Breakage
Run 'Em Out ft. Roots Manuva
[Soundboy Records]
GBR 7inch  Wish List
CHF 14.00 Add To Cart
 
  DJ Goodka & DJ Moar, Latin Mood  
DJ Goodka & DJ Moar
Latin Mood
[Trad Vibe]
FRA 7inch  Wish List
CHF 16.00 Restocking!
 
  Chikaramanga, Trill ft. Co$$  
Chikaramanga
Trill ft. Co$$
[Tres]
USA 7inch  Wish List
CHF 14.00 Add To Cart
 
  Ellay Khule aka Rifleman, Knuckle Sandwich  
Ellay Khule aka Rifleman
Knuckle Sandwich
[Cali Classics]
USA 7inch  Wish List
CHF 16.00 Restocking!
 
  Bit-Tuner, Xndl, Mattr. & Kaeoflux, Memory EP  
Bit-Tuner, Xndl, Mattr. & Kaeoflux
Memory EP
[Mism]
SUI 7inch  Wish List
CHF 9.00 Restocking!
 
  J1 aka The Deer, The Yellow EP  
J1 aka The Deer
The Yellow EP
[Record Breakin]
USA 7inch  Wish List
CHF 14.00 Add To Cart
 
  Anika, No One's There  
Anika
No One's There
[Stones Throw]
USA 7inch  Wish List
CHF 13.00 Add To Cart
 
  Ho-Kats / The Institute for Experimental Music and Sound Researc, Gee Theme  
Ho-Kats / The Institute for Experimental Music and Sound Researc
Gee Theme
[FunkNight Records]
USA 7inch  Wish List
CHF 13.00 Add To Cart
 
  Borka, Stringy Thingy  
Borka
Stringy Thingy
[Personal Records]
GER 7inch  Wish List
CHF 13.00 Add To Cart
 
  Bajka, Just The Truth  
Bajka
Just The Truth
[Raw Tapes]
GBR 7inch  Wish List
CHF 20.00 Restocking!
 
  Kazahaya, Sounds Of The City  
Kazahaya
Sounds Of The City
[Breakin Bread]
GBR 7inch  Wish List
CHF 14.00 Add To Cart
 
  Michael Kiwanuka, I'm Getting Ready  
Michael Kiwanuka
I'm Getting Ready
[Communion]
EUR 7inch  Wish List
CHF 14.00 Add To Cart
 
  Releases of the same label  
  No items found ..  
21 Savage
American Dream
[Slaughter Gang]
Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru
Souvenirs
[Mississippi Records]
James Alexander Bright
Fall For You
[Athens Of The North]
Major Arcana
Major Arcana
[Out-Sider]
Manillio
Deheim
[Bakara Music]
Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Magnetic Sunshine
[Library Of The Occult]
Papa Bear & His Cubs
You're So Fine
[Athens Of The North]
Samizdat / Michael J.Blood
Disenfranchised Refuseniks
[Blood]
Tara Clerkin Trio
On the Turning Ground
[World Of Echo]
  1. Earl Sweatshirt & Alchemist
Voir Dire
 
  2. Mogwaa
Translucent
 
  3. CCO
Sonic Atmospheres
 
  4. TamTam
Ramble In The Rainbow
 
  5. Benedek
Southland Mystic EP
 
  6. Dimitri Grimm
For Beauty's Source
 
  7. Fugees
The Score
 
  8. VA
Instrumental Dubs 2
 
  9. Arctic Monkeys
AM
 
  10. Che
The Incident