Sole and the Skyrider Band

It's been 10 years since Sole released Deep Puddle Dynamics, recorded here in Minneapolis with Rhymesayers and other friends, and Anticon: Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop, his various-artists set announcing the Bay Area label of that title. These were touchstones of alternative rap, yet in some ways Sole has advanced out of hip hop rather than pushing it forward. Now based in rocky Flagstaff, Arizona, after a couple of years abroad, he released his new album, Sole and the Skyrider Band, on his own Black Canyon imprint through Revolver, and with music that must be some kind of first: Sole handed his 2007 lo-fi art-rap-with-live-band album of the same title (that one on Anticon) over to an array of remixers, including the Twin Cities' Dosh and Andrew Broder, who tweaked the tracks to blippy, wacky, often poppy perfection. It's his most accessible music yet. He co-headlines this tour with L.A.'s Awol One, who has his own new album of electronics-drenched hip hop forthcoming, executive-produced by Xzibit. With Ceschi Ramos (New Haven), Factor (Saskatchewan), Icon the Mic King (Philadelphia), Cainam and Scotty Six-O of Imaginary Friends (Arlington, Texas), and Kristoff Krane (Twin Cities). 18+.
Thu., April 23, 9 p.m., 2009