The Scope: Hip hop instrumentalists Hermitude go live and dark on their most impressive full-length to date.

If Aussie hip hop was a footy club, Sydney hip hop label Elefant Traks would get the club champion award for their work over the past year. The label has dropped nothing but quality from their new champions such as The Tongue and Horrorshow right through to veterans such as The Herd and now Hermitude. The new record from the Blue Mountains duo has seen Elgusto and Luke Dubs ditch the samples (for the most part) to focus on cutting up live instrumentation and the gamble has worked. First single Slychain is a good example of this effortless sounding dark chilled groove they have perfected. The opening track Bloodshot sounds like J Dilla if he went all dark and brooding, while Jamaican singer Luciano gives New People a feel-good reggae vibe. The red herring on this disc, the light-hearted Your Call, will be the one that will find major radio play as Urthboy and Elana Stone playfully go back and forth deliberating over asking each other out over the first tune Hermitude have made using major chords.

The Wrap: If you think Elefant Traks is all about hippie hop, Hermitude and the records this label has put out over the last 18 months show there is much more to this Sydney label. Threads is the best record of Elefant Traks’ catalogue. Impressive.

David Knight