Most episodes of the superb HBO sitcom Silicon Valley end with a musical outro: usually banging hip-hop. This album by Cypress Hill should make the music supervisors’ job on season six a doddle.
After a 14-year hiatus, during which B-Real and Sen Dog did without DJ Muggs, this seminal stoner hip-hop trio are reunited and reinvigorated – or as reinvigorated as a ninth paean to mind-altering substances might permit. As befits an album designed to thrill the brain’s cannabinoid receptors, rather than lay it low with Xanax as per much contemporary hip-hop, producer Muggs pulls every disorienting trick out of the carpetbag: sitars, sub bass, trumpeting pachyderms and dubby contributions by psych outrider Gonjasufi.
And while many of these 21 tracks (interludes abound) sound familiar – tunes like Pass the Knife share considerable bongwater with Cypress Hill’s 90s heyday – innovations do liven up the Hill’s central theme. Nothing quite matches the superlative Band of Gypsies, which features Egyptian underground stars Sadat and Alaa Fifty; DJ Muggs also throws oud players into the mix. But female backing vocals provide the party-starting on tracks such as Oh Na Na.
