Alexander Spit's A Breathtaking Trip to That Otherside was an intriguing first statement from a new West Coast indie-rap voice, notable as much for the hermetic visions of his lyrics as much as his low-end heavy, dub-influenced production. The swarming Petri-dish atmosphere of Dilla's beats-- the sense that the sound was murky enough to support the propagating of invisible life forms-- is there, but Spit's drawn more towards sci-fi sounds. The dark, disorienting chassis of dub looms large.

His upcoming instrumentals mixtape, Mansions 2, rolls out a series of sticky, tactile, earbud-clogging showcases for his fine ear. "Valet Park, CA", the tape's opening track, rolls out a lot of tricks in two and a half minutes-- the otherworldly little vocal synth line, the smeared-slow outro, the nocturnal chittering panning from side to side-- proving that Spit, hermetic as he is, should really spread some of his production skills around.