- Simo Soo is an uncommon commodity, not just in Australian hip hop, but in hip hop generally. It’s a shame I didn’t get to his latest album sooner, but well, even if Death Grips and Epic can get it together (it’s a marriage made in heaven for sure), I don’t think Simo Soo and Sony are going to be tying the knot anytime soon, so I’ll try and give Simo Soo and his latest opus People Are Animals all the belated love I can.
Unlikely notoriety aside, the Death Grips reference is apropos. Simo Soo can bring just the same sort of gut punch to his sound, when he wants to. Shredded samples, and shriek-rapping are confronting components, for sure, although they’re far from the only things in his repertoire. His weedy, white boy flow is instantaneously evocative of the limp-wristed heroes of nerdcore. He’s clearly just as geeky as MC Frontalot or Optimus Rhyme but his focus is a little different. Instead of celebrating nintendo and anime, Soo mines his nerdiness for its rich vein of social awkwardness, letting the angst bleed out of his tumbling raps, unleashing the pain like Cex used to, a few years ago now.
Raps are only a part of what Simo Soo is about, too. His gifts as a producer are, on consideration, actually stronger than his MCing. He’s in touch with the latest trends, as up to date as Andras Fox, Ta-Ku or anyone in Australia, but unlike, pretty much any of them, when Soo does footwork, slips in a cavernous bass drop or an off-kilter wonky beat it doesn’t feel self-conscious: his affectations work, smoothly. More than that, he’s a producer with a really musical ear. When I heard the sweet apex of the bass-synth on People or what might be the peeling of synthetic bells on the interlude Never Be Afraid, those moments are moving. Speaking boldly I reckon that Simo Soo has a gift with a beat and a backing track that would give just about any of the Odd Future crew a run for their money. That isn’t quite as big a statement as it once was, but still, this is strong stuff.
Throw in a bunch of nerd-cool guests and you’ve got a record, son. Smart, new, funny and strange, I used to wonder what went wrong with Curse Ov Dialect and why I couldn’t hear something that good out of Australia ever again: I don’t have to do that anymore.

- Chris Cobcroft.