After being involved with dub superstar Lee Perry's 2008 album Repentance, New York City performer Aleister X's debut four-song EP, Bangers and Beans, arrived in late 2009, showcasing his strange hybrid of fried psychedelia and grimy U.K.-influenced street rap. Another EP, The Git, arrived in 2010, and Thong Beach followed in 2012. X had been honing his live show in the meantime, performing in black metal face paint makeup and incongruent stage clothes like boxing robes or basketball jerseys. A series of warped videos preceded Half-Speed Mastered, a proper full-length debut that arrived in early 2013, mixed by Andrew W.K. and released on his Steev Mike label. ~ Fred Thomas