New Zealand music talent Eno x Dirty have come together again recently to drop their new album Evil Adventures & Happy Endings, the work of Eden Jouavel (Eno) and Manu Walters (Dirty).
Eno and Dirty have been collaborating musically for over eight years. These guys were previously a part of the hip-hop collective SuperVillains with three others, back when they were just a producer and a rapper. The two have known each other since intermediate.
Dirty describes their early music as “almost like that Gravediggaz sound. That real dirty old-school hip-hop”. The current album, on the other hand, vibrates tones of old school hip-hop (AND IS ON VINYL, HOW CLASSIC CAN YOU GET), but is also mixed with sounds of the current musical era. “True hip-hop. No super fancy shit, it’s just done how it’s supposed to be done.”
After their run with SuperVillains, the two had a crack at putting an EP together called Easter Eggs & Good Sportsmanship. Although this can no longer be bought (and is therefore now musical gold for those who have it), the new EP is said to be just as good.
“The raps on the last tape were like a chrysalis and now it’s this beautiful butterfly that’s come out and turned into this new project,” Eno said. “It was hard to say goodbye to it aye, but I’m glad we did because this new one is insane.”
“We just kind of wanted to start again and have everything that we were showing the world [be] everything that we wanted to represent ourselves. We love our old EP, but it’s called Easter Eggs and so we’ll turn it into an Easter egg; there’ll be secret ways that you’ll be able to pick that up in the future, but until then it’s gone man.”
The album is said to have no special theme to it, but a new avenue was taken in producing beats – parts of the compositions featured live musicians. Eno is credited for producing them.
“He’s one of those dudes that can just pocket in anywhere and make something for anyone.”
After all the hard work it took to make their new release, Dirty and Eno sold a few albums the best way us New Zealander’s know how: by camping up at a park in Grey Lynn, Auckland. To Dirty’s relief, they sold out. “I was like, our parents are going to be the only ones who are gonna buy these bro, are we sure we wanna do this? And it was actually Eden who convinced me to really do this, so hat off to him man because it’s really been paying off.”
Their music can also be bought online or at Flying Out.