ALBUM REVIEW: Dr. Pushkin takes us on a roller–coaster tour with “Outlandish”

Many artistes would be in the hot trends for creating ‘trending’ songs or releasing material that falls in the trending virtual world or compliments the algorithms of current day; quite laudable. But for Dr. Pushkin, this is not his way! He doesn’t want to fit in the ‘trends’ so he picks the reverse route with something ‘outlandish’ that’d spark conversations to grow and stimulate your mindset, as you listen to his latest studio album.

Paul Azunre, the Texas-based Ghanaian Rapper best known in the creative space as “Dr. Pushkin” takes us on a roller-coaster ride with his latest body of work called “Outlandish”.

“Outlandish” isn’t your typical type of Album for the night clubs or necessarily the jamming parties; the collective is a thoughtfully-crafted 17-tracked Album designed to re-engineer your mindset while educating you to learn, relearn and unlearn things across various disciplines.

The album “Outlandish” features the Legendary Ghanaian Contemporary Highlife Singer, Ofori Amponsah, features Grammy academy member Quata Budukusu, Isolirium, Aggie, KingLung, Aphee, TeriWiizi, Kromanteng, Ataman Nikita, AZA, Kwadjo SPiRi, Jerry Kanjaga, Zumah The Poet, others. The Album is out on Major Digital Stores for streaming and downloads.

Take a listen here: https://music.isolirium.com/outlandish

Taking you on a tour of his collective, the brainy scientist puts all of us into the lecture hall with his 17-tracked Album “Outlandish”.

The Concept, The Style, The Message:

Taking time to listen to the album is like a big-dipper ride through the mind in the galaxies as he takes us on topics from Spirituality, Lifestyle, Technology, Science (Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy etc), Maths, Culture, Arts, Entertainment, et al.

Rapinho – the intro track for the Album. Dr. Pushkin likens himself to the legendary Brazilian footballer, Ronaldinho. What’s the correlation? He’s about to feed everyone a good meal in fine harmonies, melody and flow like how Ronaldinho serves it on the pitch. Pushkin wants you to pay attention to the catalogue so he baits you with ‘Rapinho’ so you prep yourself for what you’re about to hear in the collective.

Next he sways you into a 37 seconds skit after which he launches you fully into the Album.

Track 3 titled “Wake Up!” which features Rapper Kwadjo SPiRi comes in very punchy with hard hitting lyrics. An awakening song for the youth to stay woke on their dreams and not be in bed with laziness and lackadaisical attitude. Both Kwadjo SPiRi and Pushkin feed words of inspiration to the ambitious youth, literally to get up and create meaningful stuff for themselves and people connected to them.

Track 4, though a softened tone melodic tune, it heightens the awakening spirit carried from Track 3 (Wake Up!). This song sheds more light on the virtual world and earthly luxuries many youngsters have been thrown into lately with the faux lifestyles spread across social media and via the power of technology and algorithms. Dr. Pushkin unapologetically spits the truth about AI Systems created and fixated to deceive the generation; he further goes on to engage the ploy of politicians (politics) and faux prophets who use religion to mislead the public. He featured TeriWiizi & Isolirium on this record. Though with a big rebuke, the song is quite a soothing sound that could pass for party vibes.

Dr. Pushkin moves on with Track 5 to vent his spleen with a few blunt expletives about revenge; he feels vendetta is necessary for real, because of the times, people who mess with us know what exactly they are doing. For him, forgiveness lies with God and not him. He featured Aggie on this record he titles “Forgive Them”.

Ghana’s Grammy voting academy Member cum Veteran Rapper, Quata Budukusu, comes in on Track 6 with “Need You” to switch the style of the Album a bit. Both delve more closer into the styles of Hiphop, RnB and AfroPop fusion sounds to make this record a global sound. After going hard on pertinent issues from Track 1 to 5, Dr. Pushkin using this song to introduce something for the ladies – he adds Ataman Nikita and Isolirium to this urban sound as well before launching us into the next one…

Ofori Amponsah!!! But how? How did Dr. Pushkin do this?? How did he get the vocal Legend Ofori Amponsah to effortlessly deliver on this record? Perhaps the song off the album I very much resonate with – because this song completely typifies a fine combination of Highlife and Hiplife – an apropos cultural song that defines the Ghanaian Music Signature. Titled “You Make Me Wonder”, this song is a sure banger and something for the books as a timeless record and should be on every Ghanaian DJ’s playlist forever! Ofori Amponsah brought his A-game on this song which reminds us finely of his very active years in the early 2000s. Peewezel did a classic job on producing this song, makes you feel like a Ghanaian grooving to songs indigenously created in the 90s and early 2000s – a song that cuts across all young adult and elderly ages. Jerry Kanjaga also delivered good on it – I honestly can’t wait to see an official video filmed for this particular song!

Track 8 is another swooning classic, an upscale of a record that moves you from the Hiplife/Highlife feel into the Afrobeats area – Aphee’s vocals gave more life to this record and the tone with which Dr. Pushkin rapped on this would make you think he sincerely fell in love with Aphee while recording this song! American rapper KingLung also delivers admirably!

Not to take the juice out of the entire catalogue, I will entreat you to jump on the music stores right away to take a listen to this collective.

Stream Here:
https://music.isolirium.com/outlandish

About Dr. Pushkin

Technology is defining the new frontiers for development; the innovations abound, and on a daily basis tech-oriented individuals continue to make strides at improving Humanity. MIT certified Dr. Paul Azunre is one such individual. From using AI to formulate videos for his music, he’s continued to work around music, its socio-economic effect, and now a direct impact on what can best be described as a state-of-mind sound.

Maths, Beats & Flow is pure genius in music: other than the Musical set theory which goes beyond transposition & inversion, many would wonder how Maths can have a link with Music. However, the ever-evolving nature of today’s world juxtaposed with so much knowledge, and the ability to use this knowledge makes a title such as the “Maths, Beats & Flow” something everyone would want more insight on.

Veering off his last set of released songs, the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) certified Machine Learning Engineer, Paul Azunre, who recently engaged fans of the National Science & Maths Quiz in Ghana, has created something for nerds with a knack for Hip Hop. It is not just something for one class of people, but an eccentric set of instrumentals that will thrill people who truly love music, hip-hop and the fusion of genres. In his session with fans of the quiz, many of the young students whose affinity to Maths & Science appeared similar to a young Paul Azunre. Having represented and emerged winner of the 2002 National Science and Maths Quiz with Opoku Ware School in Kumasi; he could see himself in them. Beyond the books, most of these young ones have a love for Hip-Hop, however the public’s perception on what constitutes Hip-Hop often creates a disinterest. With the Album “Maths, Beats & Flow”, Paul Azunre has offered insights into the beauty of the art beyond booty and gangs.

The songs on the album draw influences from several genres and subgenres to further soothe the listening pleasure of music lovers. Combining Hip Hop, Chill Hop, Trap, Trap (EDM), Russian Folk Music, Lo-Fi and Rock, Paul Azunre creates a whole atmosphere that enhances concentration simply by pressing play.

Dr. Pushkin is an intriguing Ghanaian Artiste of Gurune extraction currently based in the United States of America. He holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Sometime in 2019, Dr. Azunre made international headlines for his contributions to advancing the state of Optical System Design optimization algorithms. More recently, he has been involved in putting Ghanaian and other African languages on the AI and Machine Learning map by developing AI technologies for translation and voice synthesis in the local African languages (see the Khaya app for Android and iOS). Many least expected the nerdy scientist to have a major interest in music. However, developing an algorithm that can guarantee to find the “best possible design” to an optical design problem was just the start of his quest to change society. Today, he’s giving fans and music lovers something musically thrilling and mind-stimulating.

(Story: Elorm Beenie – www.BeenieWords.com)