Prequel: "The Dawning Path" - Burr Oak

The good: Coming off of a strong debut album in "Somewhere We Belong" in 2023, and kicking off 2024 with a fiery collaboration with Magnetude for a nasty track "I Want You", it's safe to say that Burr Oak was on a roll in 2024. But, dare I say it, they topped it all off with these two tracks to finish off the year. Fusing modern, heavy neurofunk with the old-school rap styles of drum n bass MCs, both tracks in the "Prequel: The Dawning Path" are absolute heat. They've got all the typical elements of Burr Oak tracks — the heaviness, the abrasiveness, the stabbiness, the sound design — but the added flair of the rap adds an undeniably significant flavour to both tracks, pumping them both into the 90/100 range. A smooth one-two combo of fast rap and relentlessly gritty neurofunk, complemented by lyricism that comments on the current discourse of social media, and "Prequel: The Dawning Path" finds itself as a particularly strong two-track EP. Whilst I probably won't review any more two-track EPs in the future, I just had to draw some attention to this.

The bad: The obvious scapegoat for the drop in rating is the length. Even if both of these tracks are some of my favourites of the year, this being only 2 tracks long is naturally going to bring it down.