Thanorthwest.comAvatar Young Blaze aka Danny Darko aka Seattle’s mixtape maven released The Iron Curtain today, a 14-track monster that distills the finer moments of his wandering mixtapes like Russian vodka into a tight, hyper-glossy production. With each release, Young Blaze has streamlined and fine-tuned his style, growing into his cold-beyond-his-years delivery to the point of near perfection. His flow is dark and visceral; by contrast, the finish on his tracks is a silk-smooth sheen, painted on thick by local veteran D-Sane. Whereas many of his past projects have been a mixture of top-shelf singles and supplemental (although usually well-handled) borrowed beats, TIC is a project all his own, and Avatar has taken the opportunity to come with his biggest guns. As always, his rhymes reach beyond the region for influence, or perhaps shine influence themselves beyond the region, as he spits on “UK Grime”: “My name ring bells out in London like Big Ben.”Here, Av proves he can spin any light-hearted sample into a dark, mafioso scheme: on “Trippy”, when the Monkees sing “There’s a girl I know, who makes me feel so–” they’re cut off with a massive bass swirl and studio effects that almost sound like a Gajamagic concoction, and some hard-hitting, yet stoned, gangster verses. Likewise, Avatar cuts the softer instrumentals on “Found” and “World Keeps Turning” with street-level subject matter to fantastic results. This juxtaposition, as well as the through-and-through gutter sound of the majority of the other tracks, paints Young Blaze’s finest offering to date.Grab the free download here.Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.