Album Review: Chasm This Is How We Never Die

There was always going to be an asterisk hanging over this release. You see, this album's real predecessor was profoundly gifted producer Chasm's 2008 debut Beyond The Beat Tape. It was a very good album full of rap beats with rappers rapping on them. Since then, our hero has changed tack a couple of times. There was the 2010 reggae-ish album with songstress Vida Sunshyne and – more recently – there was the adoption of a new moniker: Dr Don Don. The good doctor had a noteworthy outing last year making (excellent) pop music. So to the asterisk before us in 2012: when we chuck This Is How We Never Die on, which Chasm will we be listening to?

Kicking things off with the Lazy Grey-voiced Rusty Griz would seem to leave us in little doubt. Straightforward, punchy, a little hypnotic, and propelled along by the world's most acerbic Queenslander, it's a rap banger. With Ruthless, we see Chasm return to the same well as Guilty Simpson and Brad Strut crush some quiet horns and big snares. Even Intergalactic is on the rap tip, with a beat that wouldn't've sounded out of place at Def Jux a decade ago. In contrast with this embrace of the traditional, we also witness examples of Chasm's more recently acquired skills. Some are small, like the scarcely-imaginable-only-four-years-ago ”woah-oh” and “weh-hey” we hear from Hau on The Truth. Some are stark like Smokey, an interlude that recalls instrumental Beastie Boys; or Dreamin', a Gappy Ranks and RuCL-hosted Caribbean holiday.

So how do we never die then? Chasm's answer is to mix the skills he's already mastered with the new, and immortality sounds pretty great too.