Milo and Elucid are at the forefront of the avant-garde hip-hop scene. As wordsmiths and beatmakers, their music furrows in eclectic and experimental directions. Pooling resources as the Nostrum Grocers, this ten track project was originally conceived in 2015 before being finalized over two days in a Brooklyn recording studio last autumn.
Seeping into life with the dub-influenced “Circumcision Is The First Betrayal,” Milo’s melodic timbre and Elucid’s grainier tone are layered over rumbling bass tones and smart echo effects. Lyrically, they flip easily between shrewd brags and seasoned life lessons. On the luminous “Thermometer,” Milo chastises “catastrophic rappers need business insurance” before characterizing himself as “trying to buy a high chair / trying to buy more time on Earth to avoid the job fair.”
Pitching Nostrum Grocers as free spirits in a world of hip-hop conformity, the closing cut “Ashwaghanda” features a telling mantra: Over a piano-laced beat, Milo and Elucid chant: “Somebody else’s idea of somebody’s else’s world/Is not my idea of things as they are.”
Nostrum Grocers by Milo & Elucid (Ruby Yacht/The Order Label)
