Markus Acher’s airy, crystalline vocals can make songs about aging and death oddly beautiful. Firmly rooted in existentialism, Acher’s dusty manifestos ride high over 13 & God’s densely-layered backdrops. Playing counterpoint to Acher’s crooning is the gonzo rap stylings (and occasional singing) of anticon veteran Doseone. It’s an unusual back-and-forth that delivers rapturous results on the seven piece band’s sophomore record Own Your Ghost.

13 & God, who first began recording together in 2004, is the unlikely marriage of German electro-pop outfit The Notwist (Acher’s band) and members of Subtle and Themselves, two avant-garde hip hop crews each led by Doseone. It is an organically-grown powerhouse that strays from the self-congratulatory and formulaic terrain so many mainstream supergroups fall victim to.

The lyrics, while laced with a heavy dose of defeat and inevitability, are delivered with such ethereal precision by Acher that they go down smooth. He occupies a solitary, haunting character on the record spelled by Doseone’s further dragging of the listener down the well. “You’re just another sound stopping in a major city,” Doseone relays on “Death Minor.” Making such heavy subject matter palatable is a tall task that 13 & God brilliantly conquer on the new 10-track opus.

Song you will remember in five years: “Armored Scarves”

Line you will remember in five years: “May you not flash unprotected neck at such an edge” (from “Armored Scarves”)

13 & God – Its Own Sun from anticon. on Vimeo.

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