Novel Path by Lt Headtrip and NorthernDraw

A live show. An international tour. A late-night drive through Portland. A visit to the site of the Kent State Massacre. The maps charted through Novel Path, the short but mighty new EP from Lt Headtrip and NorthernDraw, branch out across time and space, but all converge in our protagonists’ heads. It’s a list of metro stops along the astral plane, train doors opening to reveal telepathic kittens and sudden 40-story drops. You can smell the streets of Queens and climb over the rubble of the destroyed stages Headtrip and Draw leave in their wake. Novel Path is a psychedelic journey deeply rooted in place, even if that place is the ether.

Lt Headtrip, founder of Karma Kids, is a dynamic performer. He raps with an elastic Midwestern twang, his voice sometimes presenting as a low, menacing growl, other times squeezing through percussion like a rubber ball under a hydraulic press. Verses that initially read as abstract puzzles click into place to reveal a simple existential truth: It’s all about the experience. Armed with a crate of records and a dusty sampler, Northern Draw crafts beats that feel like they’ve existed forever, each lived-in loop cycling like a locked groove. The production on Novel Path is warm and radiant, all rounded edges and thick, rubbery bass.

Headtrip and Draw have a natural chemistry, working on the songs in close quarters during the three years Headtrip lived in Portland, Oregon. Artists from around the world show up, rapping or singing in Swedish, German, Arabic, and French. The legendary Rob Sonic (Sonic Sum, Definitive Jux, Hail Mary Mallon) appears with a typically outstanding verse before retreating into the mist. Though it represents a tone shift for Headtrip — it’s lighter and funkier than anything he’s done before — it’s still densely packed and begging to be decoded. It’s much bigger than its 19 minutes, a richly detailed exploration of how location and identity meet.

- Dash Lewis

WATKK is an independent hip-hop label curating unapologetically unique music.