Album Review: Spaceman [Mixtape] by Octavian

In its daring eclecticism, fusing delicate inner-thought with materialistic swagger, the music of Octavian achieves a galactic variety of scale. After dropping out of London's prestigious BRIT School, attended by the likes of King Krule and Amy Winehouse, living between France and England, and becoming homeless as a teenager, the young rapper's new project, SPACEMAN, is an attempt to write, co-produce, and curate his way down to our planet from somewhere alien and fascinating. Its careful manipulation of genres and provocative lyricism--threats to steal your partner or to "shoot you in your face" as he says in the flawless "Revenge"--are laid out alongside spoken-word philosophy about loyalty and self-fulfillment.

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Since his emergence from the underground with last year's pulsing, low-key banger 'Party Here', French-born, London-based rapper-producer Octavian has been touted as the next dominant force in the UK scene. And with his glossy sounds that seamlessly meld myriad dance and rap sub-genres from the UK and the US in both his flow and his polished beats, you can hear why. His sound nods as much to the psych-tinged, lush but choppy sonic universes of SahBabii, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott as it does to grime, dancehall and afrobashment, as it does to straight-up house music: it's a forward-thinking, innovative distillation of the zeitgeist that pushes things forward.

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All too often, critics look to immediately define a new artist's sound. For South East's Octavian, some have called it, grime, some trap, others drill. In reality, the London MC should not be defined - 'No way they can categorise me' he projects on new project SPACEMAN. And he's not wrong. In a ….

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