Tongue Helmet is not your usual hip hop collaboration between two emcees or an emcee and producer. Instead, this is the collaboration between an emcee named Timbuktu (Backburner, Swamp Thing, Teenburger) and a drummer named Danny Miles (July Talk). They then enlisted the help of COINS (Peter Project) and DJiRATE to help fill in the sound with instrumentation and scratching. The end result is their debut release, The Brain on Fire EP.

While the way this group came together might have been just a little unusual, the result is what happens when you bring together a bunch of veteran musicians with good chemistry who understand how their contributions fit into the bigger picture. Timbuktu leads the party on the mic, moving from self-deprecating humor to nerdy references to shit talking and back again. Miles gives the project volume, energy, and rhythm, with a great feel for knowing when to push the song forward and when to lay back in the pocket. COINS comes in with some great psychedelic rock mixed with just enough funk, and DJiRATE does a great job of bringing that fourth heat on the turntables, with some timely scratching that helps to bring musical elements in conversation with each other. It’s not anything too outside the box, but they are able to find their own distinct sound as a group, not just sounding like a Timbuktu solo release or anything else he’s worked on. Most importantly, though, this EP is just a lot of fun to listen to, with everyone sounding like they are just having a great time putting this music together. You hear it right from the jump, and it doesn’t stop until you reach the end of the fifth track and you’re surprised that it’s over so soon.

I don’t know if there are any plans to follow this EP up at this point, but I hope Tongue Helmet continues to build upon the chemistry they found with their first release. Everything came together so easily the first time around, I’d love to see what they’d come up with if they continued to build and explore their sound.