Max Moon - The Grand Howl (New CD)

Tucked within the rugged landscape of Northern Ontario, Canada, Max Moon has been steadily carving out his own distinctive place within rap music, and his debut record is a testament to this. The Grand Howl, a reference to the collective noise of human emotion, is a blend of dusty, moody production, and free, contemplative rhyme schemes, with field recorded poetry and harmonic vocal segues. Max Moon may have previously been best known as a rapper/producer with horrorcore trio Magick Show, but his solo effort veers madly off in alternate directions. Max Moon assumes most of the album’s production duties, save contributions from Juno-nominated MPC wizard Fresh Kils (“Little Do They Know”) and acclaimed Ukraine rapper/producer Smuff Tha Quiz (“Rendezvous”). And only impactful features appear on The Grand Howl, with Max Moon enlisting the prolific duo ShrapKnel (PremRock & Curly Castro, Backwoodz Studioz) for the stream-of-consciousness barrage of “DEAD END$” and friend, label-mate, and Toronto fire-spitter Ultra Magnus for the boom-trap anthem “Scrawlings”, The end result is an album that is ultimately true to this MC.