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Listen to a new Mixed Blood Majority track, ‘Same Thing Coming’

by Andrea Swensson

October 26, 2015

Is this Crescent Moon's most prolific year to date? Following hot on the heels of the release of this month's excellent Kill the Vultures album Carnelian and an EP he created with Andrew Broder, the talented, intense, beat-poet-leaning MC will also put out a full-length with his trio Mixed Blood Majority and headline the Mainroom before the year is through.

For fans of Crescent Moon's work, this kind of exposure feels like a long time coming. Known off stage as Alexei Moon Casselle, dude has been a decades-long pioneer of artier, moodier, more jazz and folk-influenced hip-hop, and his collaborative work with DJ Anatomy in Kill the Vultures stands apart from most other hip-hop being created in the Twin Cities in its originality and depth. Listening back to the work he's released so far in 2015, one gets the sense of a basketball player dribbling down the court and getting ready to lob a winning toss from the three-point line; Moon has settled into a new rhythm this year, and his work feels downright exhilarating.

The new Mixed Blood Majority track takes an all-hands-on-deck approach. Mixed Blood's Joe Horton sets the tone with hypnotic opening verse, and Lazerbeak collaborates with Horton's No Bird Sing bandmate Graham O'Brien and Andrew Broder to create a booming, nocturnal breakbeat. It's powerful, but also surprisingly minimalist; any unneeded sounds have been stripped away to reveal each artist's strengths, and it manages to feel collaborative without sounding cluttered.

"Same Thing Coming" is the first track off of Mixed Blood Majority's new album, Insane World, which is due out December 4. The trio will celebrate on December 11 at First Avenue with what is sure to be one of the most lit nights in the Mainroom of 2015, with P.O.S. and GRRRL PRTY also on the bill.

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.