OBEY RECORDS EP. 23: AHNNU

Los Angeles-based producer Leland Jackson's work as Ahnnu blurs the lines between abstract hip-hop and experimental ambient music, incorporating field recordings and found sounds into hazy soundscapes. Sometimes his recordings include tape-smudged beats, but others are merely suggestive of rhythm, dissolving elements of hip-hop and dance music into amorphous, cloudy tone poems. Jackson, who also produces juke/footwork under the name Cakedog and runs the Dogtropic label, initiated the Ahnnu project with a series of beat tapes in 2011. Early releases such as Couch and Prohabitat garnered acclaim and cult status, and Ahnnu's visibility increased in 2013 with the release of Battered Sphinx (NNA Tapes) and World Music (Leaving Records). Additionally, Ahnnu and D/P/I released She Was No Tame Thing, a mixtape created entirely from samples of Drake's album Nothing Was the Same. Ahnnu's second Leaving Records tape, Perception, was released in 2015, and both of his albums for the label were issued as a double LP during the same year. Family Jams, Vol. 3, a split cassette with Ohbliv, was released by Rap Vacation in 2017. Special Forces, Ahnnu's second NNA Tapes release (and first to be issued on vinyl), followed at the end of the year. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi