Available on all platforms and also on vinyl since January 12th, Liqid & Tcheep’s Happy Imbeciles is a vast programme and concept album. The two former Gourmets are back together for the first time in an official way on a common project, a few years after the band split. A reunion that reeks of sincerity and pleasure.
That’s what you feel when you listen to this new project, an album well anchored in the present and created on the fly, which takes us along with the moods and thoughts of the duo. Between the offbeat spirit (‘Alien Blonde’, ‘Triple Espresso’), geek references (‘Bruce Liqid’) and more introspective lyrics (‘Demain’) the spirit of this album and the axis around which it develops is defined from Liqid’s first take of the microphone, namely: ‘a fat but refined rap, like a lemon tartlet’. Everything is said and the project is perfectly launched. All that’s missing is the little hint of imbecility that Liqid & Tcheep bring to the ten tracks that make up this project.
With their brains unplugged, laid on the corner of the table and without any headaches, Liqid & Tcheep produce with this LP a project which transpires authenticity, creativity and the desire to build a new adventure without asking too many questions and without having anything to lose ‘except maybe the cold blood’. Alongside them, we find some luxury featurings with Kool Keith, just caught between the door of a sex shop and that of his hotel room during his last visit to Paris, Kéroué and Josman, two artists met during Mutant Sessions (parties organised by the label), or Ilenazz, Arom & Zedo, Liqid’s recurrent album mates. In the end, each one brings his stone to the building to intelligently densify the whole project.
A project which, unlike most albums produced during this millennium, doesn’t only contain 3 singles that duel in the middle of air holes. No. This Happy Imbeciles is a dense project that you can listen to in one go. An album of 10 tracks that is a pleasure to discover. Full of ideas. Of punchlines. Effective beats. A real album in fact. A 10-track album produced in an artisanal way, with the heart and the guts. Not because the two artists wanted to make a classic or a marketing object but rather because they expressed what they had to say without limiting themselves or hiding behind appearances stolen from others.
This album is full of doubts, questioning, imperfections and spontaneity. And that’s what makes it so good. When you have the talent of Liqid & Tcheep, you can afford to assume these flaws to bring out the best. And this is what they propose to make you listen to. All you have to do is unplug your brain and let yourself be carried away by this new high-flying album.
Discover the titles already broadcast here
Some concert dates are also scheduled with :
11 February: Release Party at Transclub (Lyon) with Smoke DZA & Dels
21 February: Pan Piper (Paris) with Al’Tarba & Asagaya
13 March: Canal 93 as part of the Terre de Hip-hop Festival
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