Codex Teuthis by Sileni

The Wire once described Edinburgh as the “perfect hip-hop city” and since then, Edinburgh hip-hop has reached lime-lit heights – with Stanley Odd touring the nation and Young Fathers winning the Mercury Prize – but they were referring to the experimental and crepuscular experimental rap scene that was then blossoming then, more evocative of Edinburgh’s culturesmash of Gothic cobbles and technological advances than cocktail fuelled party-rap.

It has been five years since SILENI released their debut album, Riders On The Conquering Worm, a monstrous epic with few concessions to conveniences like track demarcations and genre. Too weird for the hip-hop heads, too “banging” for the avant-garde, it confused many, but those who “got” it, LOVED it. In many ways, the long-awaited follow-up Codex Teuthis is more accessible and the closest SILENI will come to making “straight hip-hop.”

Comprising of HQ (Church Of When The Sh*t Hits The Fan) and GungWho (Tri/ofon, EdImpro), SILENI are firmly based in the sensibilities of underground rap and the Dadaist playfulness of experimental music - but discarding the crassness of the former and the beard stroking introspection of the latter. This is true fire music; high-octane burlesques; doomcrunk. Equal parts... more