68 from the Russian duo Abstracode is dense with swaggery rhythms, downtempo pacing, and dramatic little sonic gestures. Hailing from Lenin’s birthplace, Ulyanovsk, the duo of Mikhail Gurov and Denis Borisov manage to produce instrumentals that evidence no desire for a vocalist to claim them. Most hip-hop instrumentals can sound like short silent films in search of an actor. That’s not the case here. Perhaps the EP’s true keeper, “Deagital” is seriously blunted, its beat a study in percussive molasses (MP3). And “Eight” is the most cinematic of the batch, with piano and strings mixed in with the steamdriver-in-the-distance pounding (MP3).
Full release at dustedwax.org. More on the musicians at soundcloud.com/abstracode and myspace.com/abstracode.