Not all vanguard hip-hop is made in Los Angeles, as Dimlite goes to show. The Swiss Dimitri Grimm has broken the ground for many other producers who were looking for adventure in instrumental hip-hop, including Flying Lotus, Samiyam and Mike Slott. With his slanting hip-hop beats, which he produced at the turn of the century, he was well ahead of the troops, but is now receiving the credit he deserves. His new EP, Prismic Tops, was only released recently. It is a colorful and amazing collage of all sorts of layers of sizzling hip-hop rhythms, smooth juicy basses and cheerful, bouncing melodies. After Runbox Weathers (2005) and This Is Embracing (2006), the Swiss again doesn't mind a couple of samples more or less. He keeps his microphone next to anything that produces a sound, whether it is an actual instrument, a train station or a playground. One element he has added to the layers of Prismic Tops are vocals; sometimes distorted ones.
