The debut album by HAQK, ‘Divine Alchemy’, finds Particle 2 (Keith Hopewell) providing a collage of sonics, samples and beats, which can be described as, futuristic boom bap funk, laced with dirty sound system basslines. Nomadic Poet proceeds to flip style and cadence over the tracks, sharing his human journey with intelligence and wit, whilst observing our current global reality through an autonomous lens.
‘Divine Alchemy’ is HAQK’s debut long player. The sound explores many genres of music that both artists grew up with since the 1970’s - from rare-groove, boogie, to street-soul, hip hop, electro and roots reggae sound clashes. Nomadic’s vocals become the perfect counter narrative to the post-modern world we experience today. Both Particle and Nomadic develop the concepts together, communicating ideas that explicitly form the purpose of each track. Samples lifted from particle’s vast collection of vinyl, spanning many genres, seamlessly blend with contemporary software sounds to forge an authentic universal sound. These beat-scapes set the stage for Nomadic Poets inner dialogues of spiritual ascension and brings them into being across a variety of bpm’s.
Our experience listening to the ‘Divine Alchemy’ album is a journey that is in a continuous state of flux. From the future laced throwback to golden age 90’s hip hop of ‘What the Haqk’, touching on artificial intelligence and the ecosystem, to tracks such as ‘Reap What You Sow’, a critique of supply chains and the colonisation of farmland, the album is loaded with content. ‘Mother’ takes on a personal dimension, as Nomadic shares his loss, metaphorically referencing his mother as a mothership or perhaps an entire solar system in his lyrics:
‘If the son(sun) stops kissing his world, what happens, the earth eventually dies, swallowed whole by the skies’.
Other highlights on this album include ‘Mansa Musa’, a track comparing the richest man in history, to today’s billionaire boys club, and ‘If the Trees Had Eyes’, where Nomadic delivers a clever and humorous allegory which addresses mankind’s dishonesty. For a more laidback affair, the forthcoming single ‘Escape to Peace’ and the title track ‘Divine Alchemy’ highlight the struggle between the spiritual and the physical.
‘HAQK – Divine alchemy’ is now available on Bandcamp, as a limited-edition double CD featuring 17 tracks and a separate CD of all the full instrumentals. The digital download album of 15 selected tracks will be available in the forthcoming weeks.
haqk.bandcamp.com
Further information
HAQK (pronounced ‘huk’) is derived from the Arabic work HAQQ, meaning truth and reality. This new collaboration links two progressive thinking hip hop veterans: Nomadic Poet of the well-respected UK crew, The Planets and Particle 2 of New Flesh notoriety. Nomadic Poet has previously worked with artists including Grammy nominated Junior Reid, Prince Po, Dug Inf, Evidence and DJ Spinna. Particle 2 a.k.a. Keith Hopewell (also an infamous international practitioner of the spray can), has released four critically acclaimed albums for Big Dada Recordings with his group New Flesh. He has worked with artists such as: Roots Manuva, TY, Rammellzee, Anti-Pop Consortium, Fallacy and Gift of Gab from Blackalicious.