Kelman Duran follows up his amazing 1804 Kids with a double-album of textured, emotive dembow, hip-hop mutations, and field recordings inspired by time spent on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota -- site of the tragic Wounded Knee massacre. 13th Month is titled after the Lakota Native American community's 13-month lunar calendar. It's arguably a perfect title to reflect the poignant, mystic appeal of Kelman's music, evoking a unique perception of time that's key to his mix of ancient, rooted rhythmic nous, and forward/sideward looking arrangements of cut 'n paste textures, voices, and haunting electronics.
Kelman has an uncanny ability to connote an otherness and transport us into his headspace. With 13th Month he offers something akin to a spiritual memory upgrade, using fine-tuned powers of intuition to fluidly sculpt richly impressionistic scenes evoking the trampling fervor of the Ghost Dance, but purposely transposed to downtrodden people and sites of worship in the here and now. Opening with a couplet of scrolling, collaged panoramas in "13th Month in 3 Movements" and "CLUB 664B" that surely recall the more recent, expansively cut-up nature of Burial records, Kelman continues to map out a mosaic of more succinct pieces, grouting stripped-down club rhythms with brooding moments of introspection and a spectrum of voices, from urgent to mournful and frankly alien Latinx styles.
Like Burial's patented two-step, Kelman's dembow mutations are integral to the push and pull of his music. While it may take a bit of imagination to slot some of them in-the-mix, their brittle, skeletal structure and rugged function only heightens the inexorable yet sore, vulnerable appeal of his arrangements. Perhaps the strangest element of this whole record is the way it feels like you've heard it before -- it's so familiar, in a trippy, dream-like sense. RIYL: Burial, DJ Screw, Príncipe, Rosalía, DJ Python. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Edition of 500.
| A1 | 13th Month In 3 Movements | 10:44 |
| A2 | RARA | 5:13 |
| B1 | CLUB 664B | 14:20 |
| B2 | 6 Am, 188st And Audubon | 2:36 |
| C1 | TU MUERE AQUI (Intro) | 4:01 |
| C2 | DIABLOS | 3:24 |
| C3 | QUEEN IVYSSS | 3:40 |
| C4 | Lento X Katana 1 | 4:39 |
| C5 | Funera-al | 3:02 |
| D1 | 6's | 5:58 |
| D2 | They Are Afraid Of Her | 3:20 |
| D3 | Gravity Waves II | 3:20 |
| D4 | 13th MONTH II In 3 Movements | 7:19 |
