Owl Hours

Anthony Martin, who raps under the name Awol One, formed a partnership with DJ and producer Factor shortly after the two met while the former was on tour in Canada, and the two have forged a strange and borderline-unique brand of progressive hip-hop. Owl Hours features a large number of guest musicians and rappers including Xzibit (who shines particularly on the brilliant but nasty “Brains Out”), Tash, E-swift, and Sunspot Jonz, among others. At its best, the album blends rock and hip-hop elements in a charmingly unselfconscious, at times nearly goofy manner: “Glamorous Drunk” and “Stand Up” are particularly powerful examples of this loose collective at its strongest. At other points, the strengths and weaknesses don’t line up quite so perfectly: on “Destination” Awol One’s geeky delivery starts coming across as somewhat affected, and the two-chord instrumental track is downright dumb, as are the nyah-nyah-nyah backing vocals. His flow is rather awkward on “Back Then,” but that track is otherwise quite good, and just about everything else offers a similarly mixed bag of the great and the perplexing. But you get extra points just for being original in this field, and Awol One is certainly that. – Rick Anderson