Records end029

Artist: Higher State
Title: Higher State
Format: Cassette
Release date: June 1, 2017

Beats by EMC
Vocals & lyrics by EMC (E. McIntyre) & Hermitofthewoods (M. McGuire)
Cuts by DJ Scotchrothman (M. MacMillan)
Produced, engineered, & arranged by EMC at The Board Room
Mixed by EMC & Hermitofthewoods
Mastered at The Board Room

Additional Musicians:
Metropolis Votary appears on track 10
Crissie Brenton appears on track 6
Bill McIntyre plays synth on tracks 1,3,6, & 8.
Jay Andrews aka Sticks plays synth on tracks 7,9, & 12.
Artwork and Layout by Scott Da Ros
Project Manager: Shooty Boo

Track List
1. Ghosts (2:20) 2. Welcome (2:59) 3. Age Against the Machine (3:33) 4. Wasting My Time (3:14) 5. Champagne Campaign (2:14) 6. Capital Lies (2:45) 7. Hate the Way (4:10) 8. Worker Antz (2:47) 9. What Made the White Man White (3:56) 10. State of the Union (remix) (5:04) 11. War Party Party (3:40) 12. We Want the World (5:00)

About the Album
EMC (Eric McIntyre) and Hermitofthewoods (Michael McGuire) met at a Halifax rap show in a bar with live lobster tanks back in 2005. Within a year, the two rappers began performing together as The IMF, a socially conscious hip hop unit known for their high energy beatbox and freestyle driven performances. After releasing solo albums and touring throughout Eastern Canada, they were drawn in different directions over the next few year – EMC as the beatbox backbone drummer and part-time MC/producer of the live hip hop band Three Sheet and Hermit into spoken word as a member of the Halifax Slam team and focusing on his own self-produced solo rap albums.

A decade and a half dozen albums later, EMC and Hermit, along with long-time IMF associate DJ Scotch Rothman (Michael MacMillan) on the 1s and 2s, have returned as Higher State. Anchored by EMC’s saber-rattling production – falling somewhere between sample based hip hop and a live band – their 2017 self-titled debut album is set to be the perfect soundtrack for a chaotic world. The album has an anthemic feel, with bouncing, high energy rhymes addressing an unfolding state of emergency and DJ Scotch Rothman connecting all of the dots.

Higher State forms like a political rap Voltron, making timeless music for a world that is still f@#ked. They are here to build something bigger with woke raps for troubling times.

We are just a higher state.