La Rat

Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Goya van der Heijden – of Devon Rexi – and DJ and producer Tobias Jansen – aka TBZ – are La Rat: an experimental hip hop duo whose eponymous LP on South of North sprung up out of the gutter in 2025. With pitch-shifted vocals accompanied by Madlib-esque beats, they take well-loved hip hop sounds and drench them in the murky strange canals of Danksterdam. The duo cite influences as far apart as bizarro turntablist noise-makers MC Hellshit & DJ Carhouse are to deep-listening composer Pauline Oliveros. This mashing of high and low art carries into their ethos; they've created something special and sonically intricate which manages to not take itself too seriously. There's humour leaking out of every corner of La Rat (2025), leaving a trail back to the nest they scurried out of. La Rat aren't only rodent scavengers of soulful crunchy samples but of chunky lyrics too, whose dribbling verses are assembled artfully into an esoteric trash-tableaux.