This Is Book’s Music

Dinosaur Feathers are a duo who create sunshine pop and… okay, now you’re looking at the thumbnail above and are going “John, are you calling it sunshine pop because the cover shows a photo of a sunrise or sunset?” Maybe that was the intention of using that photo and to be honest it does sound like sunshine pop, in that it’s very bold, courageous, and happy pop music perfectly made for the early 21st century.

Early Morning Risers is a 4-song EP displays their love of the craft that is pop, everything from powerful vocal performances to instrumentation that shows that they are indeed deep listeners. They respect their influences by becoming contributors to the form, so when you hear songs like “Parallel July” and “Don’t Fear The Vagabonds”, you’re hearing a group that make the kind of pop music that would have been perfect during any celebrated era of the last 44 years. It’s magical, dreamy, ethereal, trippy, and even a bit moist, and by being all of these things, it’s also taking a risk in the face of copycat sheep music. But hey, don’t take my word for it. If you’re a nonbeliever, this EP is being made available for free. These four songs are a mere sliver of what these guys have planned for their forthcoming album, so let it go between your teeth until musical cavities develop. Clever.

(free MP3 downloads)

Say it loud, he’s explicitly Jewish and proud!

In hip-hop that shouldn’t be an issue, but for awhile it seemed that finding a Jewish MC was as difficult as finding Jewish porn stars. Okay, maybe neither is that difficult, but my point is to say that within a hip-hop context, you can create a persona that fits your music. In the past we’ve had rappers who are true to their culture and spirituality while creating music that is very strong about its own sense of community. Spirituality in hip-hop is nothing new, but when you have someone like Kosha Dillz entering the scene flashing the star of David in various places, you’ll want to know what he’s about.

If anything, it’s merely an identity thing, to let potential fans know that yes, he is very much a lyrical Jew in the style of Justin Warfield, but as you’ll hear on Beverly Dillz (LiveNDirect/Shemspeed) he’s very confident in stepping outside of his own comfort zone to create some powerful and smart hip-hop. The one thing he definitely is is this: a fun rapper. Not fun in a smiley Prince Be sort of way, but someone you’ll enjoy listening to for his well-written lyrics and carefully selected humor. He doesn’t make jokes for guffaws, but instead it’s a part of being lyrics, as he shows us in tracks like “Jungle”, “Tasted Good”, and the incredible “Dilly Wonka”. What he describeas as “Bubble Gum Pop” is anything but, so take a listen and see if you can catch what he’s trying to make fun of. “Fat Love” continues in the tradition of creating songs that praise those Rubenesque ladies.

He does all of this over well made beats produced and mixed by Jesse Shatkin (a/k/a Belief, and it’s the kind of beats that should be used by every rapper out there struggling to find good music to rhyme over. Kosha Dillz has skills to pay the you-know-what, and it’s nice to see someone who presents himself in the way he does without resorting to being a novelty, for it could easily be defined that way by those who see the name and photos and go “okay, this is crap”. This guy is serious, and he shows respect in everything he does before showing respect to his spiritual side and upbringing. Take a listen and you’ll find yourself wanting to hunt down his entire discography, only to discover Beverly Dillz is only his second album. It also means you have time to jump on the bandwagon of the Dillz. Hop on when it gets here.

(Beverly Dillz is scheduled for release on November 10th.)