The dismantling of last year's ILM semi-consensus on what made music, esp. pop music good is no bad thing, though Jess. I still believe in all that stuff but it's long been clear that you have to keep fighting some battles again and again. My tip for a happier ILM experience - read what people are saying about music and try to ignore the examples being used. And keep away from list threads!
― Tom, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
what you have just described as anti-pops main strengths are precisely what bug me about them. i remember thinking the first lp was brilliant for the first couple of spins and then just exhausted me with how far it was willing to go to impress me in the lamest way possible.
no matter how you slice it, "i'm sick of arguing with ignorant people" and "i can't even begin to address...you don't know fuck about hiphop" are ass, ass, ASS "arguments" and fairly indicative of the current state of ilm discourse.
― jess, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
My reservations are more about the beats, at least on the first album (haven't heard more than a couple of tracks off the second yet). I like the way they're going back to a more electronic '80s hip-hop sound, it fits the sci-fi-ness of the rapping, but I don't think it really gets beyond competent. They're neither funky enough nor experimental enough.
My favorite thing of theirs so far is Tuff Jam (?) off that EP they did. The beats on that have this cool electro skank about them.
― Ben Williams, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I'm going to plead ignorance here and say that I didn't really understand what Jess meant by 'anti-cadence' in the first place!
― ethan, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
it's the ever increasing sunshine and nice weather (and a fucking holiday in france doesn't hurt either i guess. ;)).
seriously though, i become much more of a popist bigot when the sunshine comes. i have no idea why. this doesnt mean i dont stand by my comments on this thread.
― Andrew L, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
i've never had any real time for eithers work, though.
beatnik-poetry-pretentiousness raises my hackles. the other music thing raises my hackles. it's less a dictum than a personal guideline.
(blimey nude spock said that HERMAN'S HERMITS are lurking!!)
noone to thread!!
(did you see what i did there?)
― mark s, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
(*this may be a joke.)
i'm turning into an old crank, yes i know.
Actually, my friend once cued up the acapella of Disorientation over the JB's Stone to the Bone. Some of the MCs were on top of every single beat, I think Priest and the female MC if I remember correctly. It's just hard to hear that on the original version of Disorientation because of the "abstract" beat.
Whoever wants a more R+B antipop consortium has got it right here: super-glossy production (for a "glitch-hop" album, anyway), lots of hooks, kinda like an IDM Kanye West or something. Waaay more fun than the first album.
― vahid fozi, Friday, 5 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― nick.K, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Honda, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― adam, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
In my opinion, they (along with a few luminaries like Can-Ox, Mike Ladd, New Flesh, Sensational) are making the most consistently interesting non-mainstream hip hop, not obsessed and backward looking (a la Solesides--who are unbelievably dull) but genuinely novel in decidely uncompromising ways. I like how they combine with the more noise-nik kind of stuff (I originally bought their first album because I realized that their guess spots on the Scotty Hard, Curse of the Golden Vampire, etc, really shone out to me). I suppose their attitude can get a little over-the-top and God knows the way critics and folks like Bob Zemko talk about them is irritating as all hell (saving/epitome of hip hop--aye yay yay) but I think the music they make themselves is rather interesting.
Arrhythmia is definitely much more poppy and well paced (and shorter) than Tragic Epilogue which despite a lot of quality tracks could get a little monotonous at nearly an hour long. A couple of the skits are amusing on the new LP (they seem to have a sense of humor about themselves which I like) and "Human Shield" and "Bubbles " are just terrific.
― Alex in SF, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― bob snoom, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― mark s, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― bob snoom, Monday, 8 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
dug out arrhythmia and ends against the middle today and they sound great!!
― the late great, Saturday, 17 March 2018 06:10 (six years ago) link
Beans has some new albums out. Three I think?
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Saturday, 17 March 2018 07:54 (six years ago) link
now i’m on to “tragic epilogue” ... SO DOPE
― the late great, Monday, 23 April 2018 18:09 (six years ago) link
all about this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZObFoF58BEE
― after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Monday, 23 April 2018 19:20 (six years ago) link