Cypress Hill - Elephants on Acid [2LP Clear Blue]

Cypress Hill went back to the source on Elephants on Acid, their 2018 album, spread here across two LPs of clear blue vinyl.

Arriving eight years after their previous album, the longest gap of their career, the record found B-Real and Sen Dog handing every beat to DJ Muggs. Muggs had been central to the group's early classics, and having him steer the whole album pulled the sound back toward the murky, smoked-out psychedelia that made them famous.

This time the haze drifts somewhere stranger, with Eastern-tinged melodies, swirling interludes and brass from Terrace Martin, Josef Leimberg and Adam Turchin threaded through the beats. "Band of Gypsies" sets the tone with guest vocals from Sadat and Alaa Fifty, while "Crazy" keeps the menace simmering under B-Real's unmistakable nasal flow.

"Locos" and "Reefer Man" show the group still having fun with their favourite themes, and short instrumental passages tie the album together, giving it the feel of one continuous trip rather than a playlist. It is dense, weird and deeply rewarding on repeat listens.

The clear blue pressing suits the album's hallucinatory mood, and it shows that one of hip-hop's most distinctive crews still had new colours to explore decades into their career.