Pick Of The Week #5: Panacea (New track)

Pick Of The Week #5: Panacea (New track)

For our new Pick Of The Week we selected a brand new song by Panacea (K-Murdock & Raw Poetic). It’s off their upcoming album ’12 Step Program’, out around Spring 2010.

For our new Pick Of The Week we selected a brand new song by Panacea (K-Murdock & Raw Poetic). It’s off their upcoming album ’12 Step Program’, out around Spring 2010.

Info


K-Murdock (left) and Raw Poetic (right)

Info
Panacea is a duo from Washington (USA) consisting of producer K-Murdock and vocalist Raw Poetic. They entered the scene with their debut ‘Thinking Back, Looking Forward’ and built a very strong catalogue. Their album ‘The Scenic Route’ is critically acclaimed by bloggers, critics and music fans.  The dreamy timeless style is very unique and also deserved a spot in The Find Magazine’s Timeless Top 10 (Issue Three).  I’d like to end this with a quote from their Myspace, because that sums this up pretty well: “Forget a classification. This is just exceptionally good, unique and timeless music.”

Music

After their most recent full length album ‘A Mind On A Ship Through Time’ in 2008, Panacea is back in 2010 with their anticipated album 12 Step Program. The official release is in Spring 2010, but we already have an exclusive sneak peek for you!  Listen to a preview below, but don’t forget to tune in to Laid Back Radio to hear the full track:

Full Track

Click the logo below to tune in to Laid Back Radio digitally. They broadcast our Pick Of The Week (12/28 till 01/04) once every few hours, so you can hear the full track over there. So don’t forget to tune in to hear it!

Or download the player for your desktop

Review

And as always, some content related to our Pick Of The Week! This time a review of the upcoming album ’12 Step Program’ and an extra.

Panacea is very possibly one of the steadiest rap groups in existence. Since 2004 with their debut album ‘Thinking Back, Looking Forward’, the DC-based pair consisting of producer K-Murdock and emcee Raw Poetic have been establishing their unique sound in the hip hop circuit.

That said, Panacea’s latest effort, The ’12 Step Program’, only further proves the group as being one of the most overlooked in hip hop. With a relatively short time frame at only 12 tracks (bet you never could have guessed that one), Panacea had no time for filler on this album. The first step is ‘The Long Pull’ where a rolling beat allows Raw Poetic to experiment with a few different flows. Actually, the room to experiment and a focus on lyrics is what really an attracting factor for this album.

Lyrical
Unlike their last full studio project, ‘A Mind On A Ship Through Time’, in which the production many times overshadowed the lyrical aspects. On 12 Step Program, K-Murdock flexes his skills on the boards but we can still appreciate Raw Poetic’s artistry lyrically, especially in his storytelling on tracks like ‘Natural Selection’.

Don’t underestimate Raw P on the mic. His uncanny ability to flow in-sync with all of Murdock’s beats really show on this album as the production can drastically change from a mellow, laid-back beat like on ‘Sync-in-City’ to the fast-paced, siren-supplemented ‘Blue Oceanwave’.

Chemistry
It’s definitely apparent that these two have really good chemistry as a ‘He’s the DJ, I’m the rapper’ type of duo. K-Murdock’s production speaks wonders for itself and gives Raw Poetic a platform to put his lyrical skill on display. Easily played through from beginning to end, I’d recommend Panacea’s ’12 Step Program’ to any hip hop head.

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Rating: 8.5/10
Words by: Mookie Williams

Extra

We can end this edition with embedded Youtube-videos or more (old) music by Panacea, but we won’t do that. Instead of doing that, we would like to introduce you to both K-Murdock’s and Raw Poetic’s side projects.

K-Murdock

Next to his productions for Panacea, he also produces a lot of music solo and instrumental. If you’re already familiar with Panacea, you know his productions are always on point. Even without Raw Poetic on the mic, the music is still incredible. He released projects such as ‘Breaks, Rhythms & Loops’ and ‘iMANGANation Volume 1’ (Hip Hop-Anime fused mixtape) and in 2010 he releases his new record ‘Piano-Rama‘. Visit his Bandcamp and blog for more music, info and updates!

Restoring Poetry In Music

Vocalist/producer Raw Poetic is also active with his side project Restoring Poetry In Music. After touring with Panacea and dealing with record label issues, the band decided to move on and it found its own feet. They released the albums ‘Dream Awake’ and ‘Pyramids in Moscow’, both available on Itunes. If you like Panacea, then no doubt about it that you’ll like this as well.

More: Panacea

Just an ordinary guy always on the hunt for extraordinary music. Not just as the founder of The Find Magazine & Rucksack Records, but also as a freelance music journalist (bylines at Tracklib, Bandcamp, Wax Poetics, DIG Mag, among others) and—above all—out of love for all kinds of good music.