Fallen House, Sunken City

VINYL FORMAT. The last time we heard from B. Dolan, he was writing from a bomb shelter as the world ripped apart at the seams. On his newest album, Fallen House, Sunken City, he joins up with legendary indie-rap beatsmith Alias to survey the aftermath. Dolan has already established himself as a master storyteller, but this time he crafts an unabashed, full-throttle, boom-bap hip-hop record. You know - the kind of hip hop that was too grimy for mass consumption and declared "dead" by the unelected powers that be. With Alias behind the production board, a special brand of bass-heavy breakbeats accentuate Dolan's aggressive delivery, while tailor-made musical backdrops contribute to the mood of impending doom. It took two years of relentless work to mold the kind of album that not only avoids hip hop clichés, but downright destroys them. The true value of this record, however, is not in fingerwagging nostalgia for a lost golden era. Fallen House, Sunken City's focused experimentation leads by example rather than romances the dead. "Economy of Words" finds Alias executing dubstep rhythms, "Body of Work" has Dolan exploring the mindset of a sex worker, and "Border Crossing" has a Providence marching band playing throughout. The album also features guest appearances by indie-rap contemporaries P.O.S. and Cadence Weapon. Unlikely as it seems, these two New England natives have crafted a sound rooted with authority in the best hip-hop traditions, with enough irreverence, energy, and vision to deface its tombstone and reanimate the corpse. This is post-rap, psychedelic-hop horrorcore politics.