Kojaque - Town's Dead (2LP)

Kojaque follows his critically acclaimed cult concept record, Deli Daydreams, with an expansive, urgent debut album. In this landmark debut, Kojaque mines both his emotional interior as an artist, and the external forces of a love triangle barrelling towards chaos. Town’s Dead is a mind-bending, explosive and expansive trip, documenting a tumultuous love triangle that unfolds across New Year’s Eve in a place where gentrification poses as much a threat as the violence of street dealers. Sonically, the record smashes any previous expectations, stretching an aural palate that leaps from rage to solace, from clattering musical combustions to tender ruminations. The tremendous scope and scale of Town’s Dead demonstrates an artist utterly untethered to assumptions about what a particular voice or genre should be, and instead explores radical musical territory. Dark corners of parks, bedrooms, clubs, streets, and psyches are excavated, and pouring over the rubble is an artist who refuses to conform, unafraid of the vulnerabilities that are exposed when the voice rings true, because there’s just no point in being anything else. Kojaque is part of a new wave of Irish artists flooding the world with blistering and sophisticated literature, film and music - ideas and work that emerged from a social revolution stonewalled by late-stage capitalism. Welcome to that state of mind, where the path less travelled is the only one worth taking.

1. Heartbreak
2. New Year, Who’s This? (Interlude)
3. Town's Dead
4. Wickid Tongues
5. Shmelly
6. That Deep
7. Black Sheep Part I
8. Rover
9. Jinty Boy Blues
10. No Hands
11. Part II
12. Sex N’ Drugs feat. Celia Tiab
13. Fallin For It
14. Coming Up
15. Casio feat. Maverick Sabre
16. Curtains