While it’s certainly intoxicating to crack open (i.e., illegally download) a new album from Kanye West or Jay-Z, an equally enticing venture is discovering rare unreleased material from local lyricists. Lawrence rapper Isaac Diehl (aka iD) has gobs of the stuff – so much so that he’s constantly coming up with new ways to package it.
ID will work up a sweat with a live band at Blayney's tomorrow night, Wednesday, October 3. Photo by Callie Tackett of Mixtape Photo.
Though he’s best-known for fronting the live hip-hop outfit Archetype, iD has also published as The Find (with Miles Bonny), Rain Closet (with Mad Awkward), iD and Sleeper (with Carlos Ransom) and Lost Cats (with Eric Johnson). With so many cooks in the kitchen, Diehl eventually had a full-plate’s worth of leftovers that he compiled as a 19-song solo album dubbed Avatar Hotel.
The odds-and-ends collection maintains a startlingly good flow, thanks to choice nuggets from Ming & FS, Miles Bonny, Sleeper and half-a-dozen more chomping-at-the-bit producers. Its experimental avant-hop aesthetic is reminiscent of labels like Anticon and Mush (the latter of which signed iD & Sleeper), and Diehl’s scribbles are consistently intelligent and bullshit-free.
As of this writing, the only place to find Avatar Hotel is in Diehl’s grubby little hands – which, conveniently, will be gripping the mic tonight when Archetype plays with a full band at 9 p.m. sharp at Blayney’s (415 Westport Rd.; 816-561-3747). Electronica-noir rockers Woven headline. -- Richard Gintowt
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