The future is now...

Since his debut solo album, B. Sharpa, was released back in 2008, Ben Sharpa has been on tour, rocking some of Europe’s most prestigious festival stages, including Glastonbury (UK), Dour (BEL), Paleo (CH), Extrema (NL), Riddim Collision (FR) and Rio Loco (FR).

Inspired by the 2012 phenomenon, Ben Sharpa and collaborators Pure Solid have released their electro-dub / hip hop project, Fourth Density Light Show (4DLS).

Drawing heavily on his own experience, and against the backdrop of the 2012 phenomenon – where some believe that humankind will undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation – Ben Sharpa has created a body of work that challenges the listener to transform their own lives using the power of positive thought and action.

Ben Sharpa and long-time collaborator, Dplanet, have always shared the same obsession with pushing the boundaries of hip hop, whilst still maintaining a connection to its conscious and cultural roots. One of their earliest collaborations, Into the Black, caught the attention of electronic music maven and ‘Queen of Dubstep’, BBC Radio 1 DJ Mary-Anne Hobbs, who described Ben as “one of the most inspired and agile lyricists in the world today”. Ben Sharpa and Dplanet continued experimenting with 140 BPM dubbed-out hybrid ‘soundsystem’ beats on his album, B. Sharpa (Off the Rails and Critical Mass). This became the musical foundation for 4DLS.

4DLS was primarily created as a live experience. Ben Sharpa samples, loops and manipulates his voice. Dplanet sequences beats and creates effects using a performance controller and various pieces of home made electronics. And spo0ky performs live, bespoke, multimedia visuals that reflect and expand upon the themes within the music.

Because of it’s meditative qualities, dub underpins the sound but there are elements of hip hop, grime and electro – the name for this sound is Robot Army Music (RAM). It allows the mind to focus on the message while the body responds to the drums and bass rhythms. It’s more than just a dance show, it’s a fully immersive, positively uplifting experience. In a time when hip hop has increasingly drifted from its more conscious roots, 4DLS is a refreshing antidote.

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Quotes

“Zeitgeist rap revolutionary. Off the heels of Sharpa’s debut, B. Sharpa, 4DLS arrives trembling with apocalypse angst.”
- Masande Ntshanga, Rolling Stone SA (Apr 2012).

“Sharpa anchors most of his tracks with a militaristic verve, often throwing out a call to arms, before pointing to an esoteric, almost religious post-Singularity rap spirituality.”
- Masande Ntshanga, Rolling Stone SA (Apr 2012).

“4DLS sounds new, but stretches back to the old hip-hop tradition of pushing your politick into the party.”
- Masande Ntshanga, Rolling Stone SA (Apr 2012).

“Owing largely to a knocking beatscape that marries dubstep to hip-hop, and then flavours that union with electro and dub oscillations, what you’re given here is doom to dance to.”
- Masande Ntshanga, Rolling Stone SA (Apr 2012).

“4DLS is less a throwback to older rap dystopia albums like Cannibal Ox’s transcendent ghetto-sci-fi epic poem The Cold Vein and more a hip-hop classmate to M.I.A.’s eminently noddable and genre-bending Zeitgeist think-piece.”
- Masande Ntshanga, Rolling Stone SA (Apr 2012).

“Armed with a heavy flow and a political pulse.”
- Halley Bondy, MTV Iggy (June, 2012)

“If an earthquake had lyrics.”
- Halley Bondy, MTV Iggy (June, 2012)

“Sharpa and Pure Solid’s offering injects energy into a morose, meme-obsessed musical consumer’s conscience, straying from conventional sonic territory in favour of a more affecting end-product that challenges the boundaries of how dub and rap are allowed to co-exist.”
- Ts’eliso Monaheng, Mahala (July, 2012)

“Derrière, batterie, basse et synthétiseurs massifs renforcent l’aspect martial de l’ensemble, en lui ajoutant un côté futuriste.”
- Frédéric Péguillan, Télérama.fr (June, 2012)

“4DLS hypnotise par sa mécanique répétitive des temps modernes et envoûte avec ses refrains comparables à des hymnes. Justifiant pleinement l’appellation que Sharpa attribue à son travail : ‘Robot Army Music’”.|
- Frédéric Péguillan, Télérama.fr (June, 2012)