Oakland’s Meanest Man Contest is like Boards of Canada doing hip-hop. On “Sorry,” the opening track of the duo’s album, Merit, Quarterbar’s beats stumble and wobble beautifully. While Eriksolo’s jazzy West Coast flow is both smart and grooving, it’s the scratchy edges that make Meanest Man Contest so unique: the mellow strings and ambient textures on “Not Sorry”; the heavy, simple beats and guitar bits on “Carpal Twist”; and the creaking organs in the Serge Gainsbourg-ian café jazz noir of “Don’t Die on Christmas.” Largely downtempo and psychedelic, Meanest Man Contest masterfully crosses bucolic and pastoral electro-acoustic music with the urban edge of smoky downstairs bars. Simply an unassuming and brilliant hip-hop record that quietly shifts the parameters of the genre. – Charles Spano