Spacebound

They live on separate hemispheres of the earth. They've never met each other. They haven't talked on the phone. They don't even know what the other looks like, but here they are, two strangers who've made one of the freshest sounds in a while. They are Spacebound.

Ever since coming together on the Stones Throw message board in late 2007, Cali emcee Jon Wayne and UK producer Josh G have quickly been gaining attention through online circuits, only letting people listen to 2 or 3 songs from a fully completed album, but that's all that's needed to be able to tell that these guys have a sound all their own. Spacebound's unlikely tandem has been putting in some serious work, piecing together a full length album over e-mail in just a few months.

Jon Wayne approached Josh with a couple recordings he did on a desktop microphone at a friend's house, but even from those cuts, he could tell they would do something special, working together. Even after rhyming for only six months, Wayne's veteran lyrical ability impresses throughout the album, but its Josh G's production that ties everything together, flawlessly blending the synthesized with the organic. His space-jazz beats allow perfect housing for Wayne's equally unique vocals. Jon's off-kilter content and delivery would sound alien on any other production, but Josh holds down the "chill" factor for the whole project. In effect, this brings the album to a perfect balance between the funky grooves that made us all fall in love with hip-hop and the original spitting that all of us are looking for, nowadays.