I have mastering engineer and vinyl-cutter extraordinaire Adam Gonsalves to thank for introducing me to this record, Bone Music, a 2017 release from Portland’s The Last Artful, Dodgr with Neill Von Tally. Her brand of idiosyncratic weirdo rap is like nothing else: electric, inventive and exciting. Sedate, spoken musings are offset throughout by electronics that forget their programming, half maintaining the beat, and then unexpectedly counterpointed by intense, agitated busts of her rapid-fire delivery, as on opener “Caverns.” Track 4, “Good/Gravy” grooves, as does the addictive “Oofda.” This music keeps you on your toes, full of surprises. The Last Artful, Dodgr is part of a larger Portland hip-hop art collective, Eyrst, whose Myke Bogan and Natasha Kmeto guest on tracks here. I caught a bit of her short set at Upstream back in May… Let’s hope she treks back northward to Seattle again soon. In the interim, go seek out Bone Music on vinyl or all them streaming services.

Videos from this record

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