Castor, The Twin [Explicit]

Dessa's first full-length record, A Badly Broken Code, introduced her to a national audience as a rapper, a singer, and a potent, imaginative lyricist. It earned a binder of superlative reviews from sources like NPR, The Seattle Times, and AM New York. To tour the album, she assembled a small cast of talented instrumentalists: vibraphone, piano, viola, and stand-up bass for a classical, sometimes orchestral sound, a beautiful, somber effect re-interpreting the disc for a dynamic live concert. Part rap show and part cabaret, the elegant presentation charmed both audiences and critics - not a negligible feat in hip hop, a genre with its share of purists. Castor, The Twin captures these new arrangements for ten of Dessa's strongest previously released songs. It also includes The Beekeeper, the haunting advance single from Dessa's new album due in 2012.