High Artifice by Aupheus

Pre-order 7-Inch Records, Cassettes + CDs at http://TinyURL.com/AupheusSFR

London, UK super-producer AUPHEUS returns with his latest Strange Famous juggernaut, "HIGH ARTIFICE" (featuring appearances by Sage Francis, Slug of Atmosphere, Buck 65, Illogic, Kool Keith, El Da Sensei, Blueprint, Rob Sonic, Sole, BlackLiq and Lee Reed)!

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SFR veteran beat technician AUPHEUS adds to an already impressive catalog (including his 2018 opus "Megalith" + his most recent collab LP with emcee Seez Mics "Cancel The Guillotine") by inviting a roster of indie rap luminaries to add the finishing touches to his rock-solid sonic foundations. His latest offering, High Artifice, drops everywhere you listen to music on April 18, 2025!

Words from Aupheus on the creation of the record:

"I didn’t initially set out to make a full album. I didn’t have a musical agenda, an end product in mind or a deadline. I just wanted to make dope music.

This project was just over 5 years in the making. The world was very different when I started working on these tracks at the end of 2019 before the pandemic kicked in, and I was a different person too. There is no ‘theme’ running through the record. One common thread that all the tracks share is the process; I reached out to some of my favourite rappers about the potential of working together and went with the flow.

Every track on the album is a collaboration and the making of each track was a unique journey. Some of these came off in a couple of days, some took months, a couple took years and some never came off at all. Some of these beats evolved over time as the world changed and my life and approach to making music changed with it.

I didn’t brief any of the featured artists unless they asked. Most of the beats I made specifically with each artist in mind. I’m a huge fan of everyone I reached out to and I wanted them to have the creative freedom to do their thing with the music and take things in whatever direction they were feeling.

In terms of the production I wasn’t aiming for a particular style or concerned with how the tracks were going to sound in relation to each other - I treated each track as a standalone piece and tried to tailor the music to compliment each artists’ individual style.

Huge thanks and big ups to all the incredible artists who contributed to this project, in order of appearance: Illogic, Sage Francis, Buck 65, Slug, El Da Sensei, Kool Keith, Rob Sonic, Blueprint, BlackLiq, Sole and Lee Reed. Everyone totally killed it and I never expected to enlist such an insane lineup of rap legends.

A special shout out to Illogic; ‘CHEMTRAILS’ was the first track we finished for this project and was the catalyst for the rest of the album. What he did with that joint blew my mind (and still does) and I know it got some of the other artists excited to get involved too.

Also a special shout to Sage Francis for the help with organising, enlisting and persuading, for his own super dope vocal contributions to the record and for all the general encouragement and support with expanding this project into something bigger than I’d originally envisioned." - Aupheus

High Artifice dropped April 18, 2025 on Strange Famous Records, and is available everywhere you listen to music.

Limited edition 7-inch Lathe Cut Records, CDs, and Cassettes (all including Instant MP3 downloads of the full album) are available for pre-order at http://StrangeFamous.com.