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Dark Time Sunshine - ANX Review
RnB/Hip Hop | Tuesday 31st July 2012 | Osh
Dark Time Sunshine, made up of Onry Ozzbourne and producer Zavala, have made something very special here. The album's title - "ANX" - refers to "anxiety", which certainly makes up a fair part of the album's content, anxiety over religion, relationships, and Onry's own mental state. The latter is made most obvious in the album's closing title track, which recounts the story of a panic attack, and is one of the album's clearest tracks in a record laced with imagery and metaphors.
The themes of Anxiety are reflected in the fantastic beats, often a sythty, stuttering affair shown to best effect on "Look at what the cat did", but are extremely strong throughout. The album takes a number of soulful twists throughout (very occasionally bordering on cheesy), but strongest on relationship songs "Never Cry Wolf" and "Forget Me Not", the first of which in particular has a beautiful opening where Onry's lyrics intertwine with Riva DeVito's jazzy singing.
The album's less serious moments, such as "Prarie Dog Day", much of with is about clothes, are equally strong, enjoyable affairs. As an album this is as much about sound as lyricism, the progression and development of the beats running parallel to the lyricism, show to best effect just before Aesop Rock's verse on "Take My Hand", during which the beat reduces then starts to build up as ANX's biggest guest star announces "Wanna see a trick?" then unleashes a great verse. The album's strange lyricism leads to some excellent pop culture reference spotting, from "Marty Mcfly Nikes" on "Never Cry Wolf" to "We Don't Need No Education" (this album is certainly as influenced by psychedelia as it is Wu Tang) on "Look Forward".
Dark Time Sunshine also have a good ear for hooks, as dense lyricism is easily broken up by catchy hook often containing as little as two words, just to allow you to reflect on the content of the verses. This is unquestionably one of the finest alt hip-hop releases of modern times, accessible and yet nicely weird, this one will certainly take a few listens to appreciate fully, but is a great surprise on first hearing.
Simon Pease
