This trio of Atoms Family vets -- lyricists Alaska and Windnbreeze and producer PaWl -- are standouts on Def Jux's roster for their overt appreciation of alcohol straight-up, not with the side of sedatives that usually guides this label. PaWL is indebted to a dense '80s b-boy sound but adds his own stamp of roller-rink electro-shock. It's not altogether dissimilar to El-P's own brand of concrete-shattering funk. It's just more booty-minded.
Alaska's and Windnbreeze's verses, literate but not verbose, cling rigidly to the beat like staccato jackhammers, invading the headspace as much as the production. The whole mess adds up to a great New York hardcore minute. It's not quite brilliant over the course of the fifty-plus minutes, but the press sheet isn't wrong when it says Hangar 18 is maybe "the best opening band I've ever seen."
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