Enter Emiljo Albert Cassagrande known on stage as Emiljo A.C. Hailing from Slovenia this 16-year-old beat wiz has released his first EP, Let’s Fly Away, on Lowtemp Music.
Since the age of 12 A.C. has been making beats and cooking sauce inspired by hip-hop heavyweights like DJ Premier and Lord Finesse. Gramatik’s influence on A.C. is apparent, and Denis has made a wise decision bringing the young man into the Lowtemp fold.
Emiljo himself calls his music electro hip-hop. Let’s Fly Away is rooted in the hip-hop groove, peppered with electric nuances and grown with jazz and soul influences. He commands the boom-bap much like his progenitor Gramatik. The basslines are thick and infectious, especially on “Glendora”, a collaboration with ILLUMNTR and Dexx. A.C. has a lighter touch than most artists on Lowtemp. Bass takes a backseat to horns, piano and drums. The beats themselves are the draw, and Emiljo messes with the kick and the tempo achieving spectacular results, most notably on “Indu Street Ska”.
Our favorite track is “Light My Cigar, Please” which revives the often-neglected genre of electro swing. Very few artists on Lowtemp touch on the swing groove, but A.C. is bringing it in full effect. Let’s Fly Away is filled with foreign language samples which add character to a sound that is already exotic. The most emblematic sample comes from nasty Nas, however, “The school dropout, never like the sh*t from day one.” These words sum up young Emiljo’s mantra right now – breaking from convention to make revelatory music.
For a first release ‘Let’s Fly Away’ goes very hard. We feel there may be a new star rising in the electro-soul scene. Like Griz, Gramatik and others before him, Emiljo’s sound is fresh, original, and has the potential to shape the sounds of other artists and expand the boundaries of the genre. Given his age, he is only going to improve upon production quality which is already impressive. Don’t sleep on this kid!
Connect with Emiljo A.C.
https://www.facebook.com/EmiljoAC
https://twitter.com/EmiljoAC
https://soundcloud.com/emiljoacmusic
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