One third of Newcastle trap metal trio RoninClan, Jak Francis AKA Shoshin Noel released his own solo material for the first time last week, giving us his new ‘You Are What You Do/Until You Die’ EP and a brand new music video to boot.
The first three tracks, “Foreword”, “#SelfLove” and “Tall Poppy Syndrome” were released on Wednesday as ‘You Are What You Do’, with the second three, “130mph”, “Basilisk” and “Throne” released on Sunday as ‘Until You Die’.
The two halves of the 17 minute EP have distinctly different sounds – you’d imagine this was the reason for halving it in the first place – the difference comes more so in the choice of beats and production style rather than Shoshin’s vocals.
The first half ‘You Are What You Do’ comes with heavy bass laden trap beats, similar to RoninClan’s already well established experimental sound. The second half ‘Until You Die’ changes up the atmosphere completely, with beats that take influence from more mainstream ‘SoundCloud wave’ artists, like Lil Uzi Vert and Ski Mask The Slump God, as apposed to the $uicideBoy$, Scarlxrd influenced sound of RoninClan.
However, Shoshin comes completely out of left field on “Basilisk”, virtually spitting garage MC style vocals over a skippy dance beat, resulting in a banger that wouldn’t be out of place at a hip-hop club night – yet somehow it still captures that RoninClan edginess and atmosphere, not completely fitting into a mainstream style.
This EP is a stellar first effort from the Ronin frontman; it’s slick, stylish and shows that Shoshin Noel is in no way a one dimensional artist.
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