Audiopile Review: Coming out of the ŌFFKILTR hip-hop collective and last seen working together on the fantastic 2022 Clouds In A Headlock, this new duo, made up of France-via-North Carolina MC Mattic and North London-based producer Daylight Robbery, drop one of 2023’s best kept secrets in underground hip-hop. Much in the same vein as Clouds In A Headlock, Daylight Robbery steers the production towards the edge of space-age pop and American psychedelia, an effervescent mix of well-worn psych, garage and bucolic lounge and jazz records. Peppered in are quick cut samples from across hip-hop history and humorous clips pulled from pop culture (is that Jerri Blank from Strangers With Candy we hear??)—it’s some of the most refreshing production we’ve heard in years, definitely tipped for fans of Edan’s psych-tinged style. Mattic might be one of the most slept on MCs right now, spending the last two decades on the outskirts of the underground, though his steady string of incredibly consistent releases will certainly demand hip-hop excavators of the future to wonder what was wrong with everyone—check his 2021 album under Ill Scholars or 2023’s Steel Sharpens Still with his trio Endgame for further evidence. If you took our advice back in ’22 to spend the time with Clouds In A Headlock, then Odd Holiday is an absolute must-hear.

Odd Holiday are purveyors of a rare breed of hip-hop, both anchored in golden-era lyrical dextrousness and aligned to the contemporary movement of minimal soulful production. Their music is deeply emotive, seasoned, and undeniable.

L.I.S.A. is the debut release by the semi-nomadic duo consisting of Mattic, a Charlotte NC native currently residing in France and producer Daylight Robbery! who has one foot in the burgeoning jazz scene of London, UK and the other in the boom bap foundation of Brooklyn, NY.

L.I.S.A. represents the meeting of two forces who are at the top of their game and supremely comfortable in their craft, merging into something which feels both timeless and brand new. The project sees Mattic engaging with the altering world around us in the wake of global upheaval with a lazy laid back simple but puzzling pen accompanied with his ghost package of delays, effects and skits.

Producer Daylight Robbery!, fresh off the back of his debut solo release Moons of Jupiter on Melting Pot Music, provides backdrops which are rooted by a crate-diggers ear with minimal intervention to maximum stirring effect with limitless range.

ODD HOLIDAY represent the ŌFFKILTR circle; both members also form part of the collective Clouds in a Headlock who dropped their psychedelic art rap debut on Fat Beats / CMR in late 2022.