Mongrels- Attack The Monolith

Mongrels self-released their first 7″Slingshots” in 1997 after which they became part of a larger recording collective known as Toah Dynamic, soon releasing two studio albums and a string of EP’s. The two guys who have started the whole story together include Kid Acne and Benjamin. This duo joined forces through a shared love of hip-hop and graffiti in the mid 1990’s back when Benjamin was making pause-button tapes on a pair of belt-drive decks and young Kid Acne was genuinely a spotty teenager.

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Mongrels “follow up 7″ came in the form of ‘Fresh Arrangements’ in 2002. This era also saw the release of three Kid Acne solo albums :’Rap Traffic’, ‘Council Pop’ and ‘Romance Ain’t Dead’with Benjamin deejaying while they toured supporting the likes of Flying Lotus, EL-P and Antipop Consortium.Since 2008, Mongrels music laid dormant though a recent discovery of early demos and half-finished material inspired the lifelong friends to resume where they left off.

” The desire to make music never leaves you. But, sometimes it’s good to take a break in order to get a fresh perspective. In many ways, this is the record we wanted to make twenty years ago. It’s got an honest, old school feel but hopefully the additional life experience has helped to add more depth to the content of the lyrics and production whilst retaining the integrity and DIY ethos of that initial teenage mindset.”

A few of these early demos happened to feature Sebastian Laws of the psych-rap group New kingdom. The two of them met in Brooklyn ten years ago and would hang out whenever he visited the Big Apple.This isn’t an exercise of reliving the past; it celebrates a culture that has become as mainstream as rock, soul and pop. Acne’s lyrics are full of whimsy yet pack the punch of a battle emcee. The combination of his rhymes and Benjamin’s beats are a musical marriage made in hip-hop heaven, rooted firmly in the present.

“As teenagers, New Kingdom had a profound effect on us. Although we were living worlds apart, their music was something we could relate to and gave us a sense of belonging. We felt blessed to work with Sebash so it was a shame this material ended up sat in a shoebox for almost a decade. Once we’d made the decision to start recording again however, we picked up where we left off and collaborated on the rest of the album together. Sebash is an honorary member of MONGRELS now”.
“Attack The Monolith “will be released 27th of May 2016.The album has been mixed and mastered by fellow Sheffield resident, Dean Honer (Moonlandingz / Eccentronic Research Council). Musically, the album is a sonic assault harking back to rap’s glory days thanks to Benjamin’s nonsense production and extensive archive of breaks.