The Skull Eclipses

about

Known respectively for their independent work as Botany and Lushlife, Austin producer Spencer Stephenson and Philadelphia emcee Raj Haldar selected their collaborative mantle and debut album title, The Skull Eclipses, when the project became more than just a one-plus-one combination of their individual sounds. These tenured creators initially set out to pay homage to the genres that convergently inspired them to start producing music in the late 90s and early 00s-- jungle, breakbeat, drum’n’bass, trip-hop, electronic ambient, etc.-- and bring them into the context of contemporary hip-hop. The outcome is a heavy-hitting, eleven-track post-rap montage that seeks refuge from the present by opening doors to the past, winding up with something altogether more futuristic than either of its authors had consciously intended. The title The Skull Eclipses was originally given to a demo that Stephenson sent Haldar in 2014, but it quickly became apt for the darker subject matter and emotional tone that the record and project assumed. Accordingly, Haldar’s lyrics are a free-associative expression of grim frustrations that he and Stephenson felt could be lost behind the perceived sunniness of their solo identities: the value of life amid a growing population, Islamophobia directed at people with brown skin (Haldar himself is Bengali), poverty, pharmaceutical abuse, mortality, mental illness, international conflict, police shootings, and the continual failure of the drug-war that began wh

top songs

albums

The Skull Eclipses

Penumbras

Pillars (feat. Baba Maraire & Felicia Douglass)

Gone (feat. Open Mike Eagle)

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Totality Piece (feat. Mary Lattimore)

Yearn Infinite II [Extended]

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Take My [Instrumental]

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Mum Um

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Pillars [Instrumental]

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Penubras

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Totality Piece (feat. Mary Lattimore) - Single

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Gone (ft. Open Mike Eagle)

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