Backalicious

The Great White North is about to get a whole lot hotter thanks to the Backburner crew. Thomas from Hand'Solo was nice enough to hit me with a pre-release promo of their latest Heatwave earlier this week, and it's nothing short of epic!

Featuring top-shelf Canadian hip-hoppers like Jesse Dangerously, Thesis Sahib, SJ the Wordburglar, Wayne Gretzky, Chokeules, More Or Les, Ghettosocks and Psybo, it's 14 tracks of flawless flows and razor-sharp cuts expertly mixed by Timbuktu and Dexter Doolittle. Stand-out joints include the one-two punch of starters "Straight Out the Vault" and "Lifers," "Show of Hands" (with its unexpectedly tight xylophone-powered instrumental hook), Castlevania-driven "Phantom Ghost" and the spacey "Freak Show Physics." Though, truthfully, there ain't a bad song in the bunch.

Check out the phenomenal title track below, and then proceed immediately to Bandcamp to pre-order your copy. Both the digital version ($5) and the physical release ($8.99) will be available on August 30th, and I can think of no better soundtrack as you while away the waning days of summer.