HOSEY - Goodbye Bikini Island (7.5/10)
Fans of instrumental hip hop have had it tough going these past few years. The genre seems to have hit a rough patch. Many of its heroes have deserted it: DJ Shadow went hyphy, then dropped off the grid after his middling third album; The Avalanches vanished into the Australian mists from whence they came after 2000's epic Since I Left You; RJD2 jumped ship and started singing indie rock; J Dilla passed away in 2006. Only Prefuse 73, Flying Lotus, and a handful of skilled auteurs are still doing anything listenable with the form. Add New York duo Hosey to that list. Their latest album, Goodbye Bikini Island, is a love letter to the seemingly bygone era of break beat infused, sample crazed, rhyme-free boom bap.