High Priest

When the word "fusion” is used to describe anything be wary. On his first full-length release, High Priest fuses hip-hop, dub, "serious lyricism” and something called "musique concrete,” which involves making music out of real world sounds rather than instruments. What’s troubling is that most of Born Identity sounds extraterrestrial and without a universal translator it’s just too thick to slice through. Cluttered production all but suffocates the vocals and the sci-fi droning grows tiring after three songs. When you can hear the words they have potential. Not enough to make you listen again, but enough to make you go, "What?” A case of an artist being weird for the sake of being weird, this disc deserves its sentence: a life of dwelling in obscurity.