Curta is an emcee and producer from Denver who started putting out music a few years ago. Just about one year ago, he released his last EP, Click Bait. Now he comes back with another EP, End of Future Park.

Named after a random sign placed in Denver by the Colorado Department of Transportation, Curta felt the idea of “future park” speaking to him as there was a wave of closures of DIY venues across the state in 2016. Combined with the election, Curta found himself facing cynicism straight in the face as he began to write this EP. Working with his friend, mentor, and collaborator 4Digit on production, they combine to create this dystopian soundscape, drawing from electronic and industrial sounds. The result is music that sounds like the soundtrack to a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie. There’s a lot of distortion, feedback, and dissonant synthesizers played against some really deliberate and pounding drums. Sometimes the drums move more in the dance direction, but there’s still this industrial pulse to them as opposed to house beats. As an emcee, Curta moves from some melodic hooks and intros to some great rhythmic staccato rhymes that play against the drums of each track. While the lyrics might have been born from a period of great cynicism for Curta, it’s not just doom and gloom, as he finds a way to squeeze in some hope and humor along the way. After all, he hasn’t given up, he’s just processing a shitty period in his life and using the music to work his way through it. As an added bonus, the seventh track of the EP, which will be the B-side of the cassette release, is an instrumental beat tape. It’s not just a collection of short beats that play one after another, though. This is actually one long mix, where one beat flows into the next and the music never stops and you just get to buckle up and go on this journey with the producers. It makes for a very nice complement to the intensity of Side A.

End of Future Park is challenging, exciting, and inventive. Curta took what could have been a moment where he gave up and gave in, and instead channeled that energy into some unique hip hop that pushes the boundaries of different genres and will hopefully inspire you to channel your anger or disappointment the way that he did.