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$BEATS with Dan RulePublished: Music Australia Guide #78, July 2010. The RootsHow I Got Over****1/2 The Roots are a rarity in the rap world: a live ensemble of limitless musical scope that is still very much part of East Coast hip hop’s lineage. Ninth studio record How I Got Over – led by drummer and musical director ?uestlove and MC Black Thought – is one of the Philly crew’s richest and most realised yet. Melting between swooning soul, symphonic atmosphere, arcane folk explorations (Right On even features Joanna Newsom) and raw, kick/snare signatures, the record traces Black Thought’s narrative of a man’s journey through solitude and estrangement, to eventually find glimmers of hope and promise. It’s a tragic, moving, thoroughly rewarding trip. DefJam/Universal ActressSplazsh**** Splazsh, the latest in a string of esoteric renderings from Darren Cunningham (aka Actress), proves an intriguing creature. Lurking amid stealthy, minimal techno introversions for much of this record – check the slow-burn luminosity of opener Hubble, Get Ohn and the mechanised stridence of Bubble Butts and Equations – the South London producer isn’t afraid to completely flip his script. Flashes of exuberance pulse from the darkness; sexed-up vocal chops shudder and stutter atop bouncing tech-funk drum lines; early ‘80s synth palettes phase, cut, scythe and refract. It’s immediately accessible and obscure, clear and opaque. Cunningham describes his own sound as “RnB contrete” for good reason. Honest Jon/Fuse Big BoiSir Lucious Left Foot…The Son of Chico Dusty****1/2 Sir Lucious Left Foot is hip hop dynamism personified. From the skewed Southern bounce of opener Daddy Fat Sax and uncanny pop hooks of Turns Me On, to the sticky, synthetic funk of Shutterbug and spiking horns and surging operatics of General Patton, OutKast co-pilot Big Boi’s hugely anticipated solo debut is as wildly divergent, magnetically playful and, quite frankly, brilliant as his finest work with Andre 3000. Big Boi is electric here, plying his dense, cheeky, web-like rhyme schemes over a wild assemblage beats and hooks. One of hip hop’s revolutionary protagonists has re-emerged in the most emphatic of fashions. DefJam/Universal EloquorCharge***1/2 Eloquor does a lot right on Charge, his second long-player in as many years. His ploy – an effective one – is to keep things simple. Across a suite of classic, rugged boom-bap, the no-frills Melbourne MC talks story and conjures time and place rather than preach trumped up ethics and philosophy. And it shows on tracks like the orchestral brood of MT MF, DJ Premier-like piano hook of Pressure’s On and the sombre study of parenting and youth, Hey Folks. Charge does run a little off the rails when things get too maximal. But for the most part, this sturdy, gritty record reveals a rapper who recognises the power of understatement. Myspherical/Obese OvalO**** Markus Popp’s latest offering as Oval is very much a sum of its parts. Across two discs, almost two hours and a whopping 70 tracks, O explores the stunning, shimmering limits of Popp’s electronic interface. Unlike his acclaimed work of the mid ‘90s, this swathe of miniatures place elemental treated guitar and fragile percussion centre stage. The results are nothing beauteous. So minimal are Popp’s sketches – so stripped of anything but the essential melodic and structural components – that they assume an almost reverential posture. This is electronic music, deconstructed and purified. O is a treat for the senses. Thrill Jockey/Fuse$

BEATS with Dan Rule
Published: Music Australia Guide #78, July 2010.

The Roots
How I Got Over
****1/2

The Roots are a rarity in the rap world: a live ensemble of limitless musical scope that is still very much part of East Coast hip hop’s lineage. Ninth studio record How I Got Over – led by drummer and musical director ?uestlove and MC Black Thought – is one of the Philly crew’s richest and most realised yet. Melting between swooning soul, symphonic atmosphere, arcane folk explorations (Right On even features Joanna Newsom) and raw, kick/snare signatures, the record traces Black Thought’s narrative of a man’s journey through solitude and estrangement, to eventually find glimmers of hope and promise. It’s a tragic, moving, thoroughly rewarding trip.

DefJam/Universal

Actress
Splazsh
****

Splazsh, the latest in a string of esoteric renderings from Darren Cunningham (aka Actress), proves an intriguing creature. Lurking amid stealthy, minimal techno introversions for much of this record – check the slow-burn luminosity of opener Hubble, Get Ohn and the mechanised stridence of Bubble Butts and Equations – the South London producer isn’t afraid to completely flip his script. Flashes of exuberance pulse from the darkness; sexed-up vocal chops shudder and stutter atop bouncing tech-funk drum lines; early ‘80s synth palettes phase, cut, scythe and refract. It’s immediately accessible and obscure, clear and opaque. Cunningham describes his own sound as “RnB contrete” for good reason.

Honest Jon/Fuse

Big Boi
Sir Lucious Left Foot…The Son of Chico Dusty
****1/2

Sir Lucious Left Foot is hip hop dynamism personified. From the skewed Southern bounce of opener Daddy Fat Sax and uncanny pop hooks of Turns Me On, to the sticky, synthetic funk of Shutterbug and spiking horns and surging operatics of General Patton, OutKast co-pilot Big Boi’s hugely anticipated solo debut is as wildly divergent, magnetically playful and, quite frankly, brilliant as his finest work with Andre 3000. Big Boi is electric here, plying his dense, cheeky, web-like rhyme schemes over a wild assemblage beats and hooks. One of hip hop’s revolutionary protagonists has re-emerged in the most emphatic of fashions.

DefJam/Universal

Eloquor
Charge
***1/2

Eloquor does a lot right on Charge, his second long-player in as many years. His ploy – an effective one – is to keep things simple. Across a suite of classic, rugged boom-bap, the no-frills Melbourne MC talks story and conjures time and place rather than preach trumped up ethics and philosophy. And it shows on tracks like the orchestral brood of MT MF, DJ Premier-like piano hook of Pressure’s On and the sombre study of parenting and youth, Hey Folks. Charge does run a little off the rails when things get too maximal. But for the most part, this sturdy, gritty record reveals a rapper who recognises the power of understatement.

Myspherical/Obese

Oval
O
****

Markus Popp’s latest offering as Oval is very much a sum of its parts. Across two discs, almost two hours and a whopping 70 tracks, O explores the stunning, shimmering limits of Popp’s electronic interface. Unlike his acclaimed work of the mid ‘90s, this swathe of miniatures place elemental treated guitar and fragile percussion centre stage. The results are nothing beauteous. So minimal are Popp’s sketches – so stripped of anything but the essential melodic and structural components – that they assume an almost reverential posture. This is electronic music, deconstructed and purified. O is a treat for the senses.

Thrill Jockey/Fuse

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