Des lumières sous la pluie

After auto producing in 2002 "Lyrikal Teknik", a street-tape already presenting a very personal univers which earned a nice success among underground hip hop, duo Psykick Lyrikah (Arm & Mr. Teddybear) deliver in 2004 this first album, genuine post-rap weird object, as intimate as nuanced. The listener can live it as an introspective journey since each one of the duo has brought many personal elements for its composition. Elements coming from their hidden side, the one which is rarely exposed. They both wanted a very personal album without collaborations except for the scratches by Robert Le Magnifique. Finally, duo Abstrackt Keal Agram appears through a new version of track "Le dernier chapitre" (already included on the street-tape). The participation of guitarist Olivier Mellano is the result of an encounter around the finishing work on the album. His spontaneous and inspired interventions on 3 tracks really bring intensity to the original versions, his motivation probably coming from the fact that this was his first work with a rap band and that he was more used to rock or pop artists (he is indeed known for his multiple collaborations with Yann Tiersen, Miossec, Dominique A, Laetitia Shériff, Sloy, Bed, Polar... but also for his own band, Mobiil).
The music, mainly composed by Mr Teddybear, is clearly hip hop based but with an orchestral and atmospheric approach constantly show an opening to other styles like post-rock, ambient, dub, electronica or even blues. The result is an evasive atmosphere, a rich entity of expressive and bewildering landscapes.
Arm's lyrics are developed in a widely poetic shape (quite a rare thing in hip hop). Expressed in the first person, the listener can still easily identify with these confrontations between the individual and his demons (solitude, the city, lies and other every day life cowardice...). Still comments are pretty useless when the best thing to do to grab the fineness of these lyrics is to read them ; you'll then understand what made Psykick Lyrikah such an essential and singular band from their first album.