“Inventive, intelligent, and illuminating hip hop.”
When you're in a seven-member band, there are advantages to crossing the country with another seven-member band.
Twice the fun?
Yeah, that's part of it, says a weary Dusty Melodica from West Coast hip hop act Sweatshop Union.
But it also means you have a built-in opposing team for whatever game you play.
"On our drives we'll pull over whenever there's an open field and have soccer games and stuff," Melodica says of the current jaunt with Pocket Dwellers. "It's awesome.
"Touring with Sweatshop was partying enough, but adding another seven guys into the mix is just crazy."
The insanity rolls into town tonight, as the acts play a jazz fest show at MacEwan Hall.
Sweatshop are touring their latest release United We Fall, another superb slice of inventive, intelligent and illuminating hip hop.
"We were all happy with the final product, which is a first for us," says Melodica of the third album, which was written and recorded as the members split off into separate groups, coming back with finished material.
"Now we're at the point where we're open and comfortable enough with the guys in the group to trust them to do what they're going to do with their songs and know that it will turn out and sound good."
And, what's even more impressive is how cohesive the album is, including recurring themes, such as the realities of life in a touring hip hop act, which Melodica admits is nowhere near what it appears.
"It's been a humbling experience," he says.
"We realized we had this fantasy of what it would be like and now that we're actually in the thick of things, it's not at all like we thought it would be.
"I thought it would be stability, like houses and cars, not excess, like a diamond-studded car or a big gold house."
Does that mean he regrets the life and work he's chosen?
"No," he says adamantly. "I love what I do – I genuinely love what I do. And not many people can say that."