Review: El-P - Cancer for Cure
If there’s one thing you can always depend upon with El-P, it’s going to have to be his amazing intros, the man knows how to start an album with flair and his latest is no exception to this rule.
Not many rap musicians let their beats ride as well as El does, he knows when he’s made a great beat and he wants you to get familiar with his beats before he jumps in to do his stuff- his dystopian vision is stronger than ever here. Lead single “The Full Retard” makes this clear with lines such as “Future of a gerbil up ass of masochist” and “Viewers of the divine rage learn to worship the hard way”, he clearly has no hope for the future of humanity and he wants to share it with all of us- he certainly makes a convincing argument.
He paints a bleak picture of the present and future with his lo-fi beats combined with his pessimistic futurist rhymes in a way that is fascinating- each of his solo albums have captured their time perfectly well, Fantastic Damage was the sound of a New Yorker in shock, predicting things worse yet to come, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead was a paranoid post-9/11 diary of a mad man with nothing left to loose. Cancer for Cure captures the current state of the world with a pitch perfect tone of anger with hints of paranoia previously explored in his earlier albums.
Yet however bleak the album gets, El never fails to go in as hard as possible- tracks like “Oh Hail No” and “True Story” show us he’s not going anywhere and why he’s still as relevant today as he was 15 years ago in Company Flow. Whilst most Hip-Hop albums have features that either steal the spotlight or are there simply to get more people interested and don’t suit the album at all, the features on Cancer for Cure blend in seamlessly with the rest of the album (similar to his previous albums), Mr. Muthafukin’ eXquire drops a notable verse on “Oh Hail No” along with the ever growing in popularity Danny Brown.
After the aggression and pessimism of the rest of the album I expected an amazing closing track, but what I didn’t expect is El’s most beautiful track so far, the 8 minute long “$4 Vic/FTL (Me and You)”- the outro of which is unrelentingly positive in comparison to the rest of the album. Despite what he’s said during the rest of the album he tells us that there’s some hope left in love- no matter how fucked up the world gets there’s always one thing worth living for.
“But I’ve never felt so brave as when I’m looking at your face, they can decimate my body but my heart will not disgrace, they can torture and interrogate and shackle to my boot, I will gnaw off my own leg and hop the fuck right back to you”- it’s albums like this that remind me why I love the Hip-Hop genre.
★★★★★
(5 stars out of a possible 5)
Review: Torus - Torus (EP)
Natural isn’t a word I would use to describe electronic music often but it’s a word that almost makes way too much sense for Joeri Woudstra’s first release as Torus.
The atmosphere slowly builds with incredibly warm sounding synths and samples until deep drums begin in an incredibly Dilla-esque fashion- equal parts inspired by future garage as it is ambient, the EP keeps moving at a brisk pace but at 22 minutes it’s over before you know it. It doesn’t overstay its welcome but it doesn’t stick around long enough for me to love it enough- it feels incredibly coherent but almost like a tease for a full album release at the same time.
This is an incredibly bass-fueled release but it remains beautiful with some incredibly well timed samples like on the track “Vocaldonuts”, the closer of the EP. Slowed down vocals are getting more common in electronic releases these days but it’s still used effectively here and it sounds really relaxing.
Few albums can really create a sense of isolation in its listener- the sound of being joyously lost is something incredibly hard to create but Torus delivers on this in many ways, I want to get lost in the atmosphere he’s creating and I’m more than happy to just go along for the ride.
★★★★
4 stars out of a possible 5.
Source: SoundCloud / Yamibito
Top 10 Albums of 2011
10. Com Truise - Galactic Melt
Probably the easiest way to describe this album would be to just say “Doswave”, but that sounds so douchey so I’m just gonna go ahead and say this is my favourite retro synth album of the year.
9. ASAP Rocky - LiveLoveA$AP
Okay so I fell for the hype on this one, the lyrics are incredibly inconsistent and some of the guest spots are bizarre but the production on this is consistently amazing and Rocky has an incredibly smooth voice that just blends with the production so well.
8. Das Racist - Relax
This is an incredibly silly album but I love it.
7. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
Some of the best loop based music I’ve heard since The Field, this is easily my favourite ambient release this year.
6. John Maus - We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves
Another “retro” sounding album but with vocals this time, the sound going on here is wonderfully old but futuristic sounding and it also has the best cover this year.
5. Body Cheetah - Sluts Talk About Heaven
I’m incredibly surprised Body Cheetah isn’t bigger yet, his unique freaky funk style is some of the sexiest music you’re going to hear all year. It sounds as if honey is being poured into your ears so that it can be used as lube (Ahyve’s guest spot is one of the best features I’ve heard this year).
4. Clams Casino - Rainforest EP
There’s something incredibly beautiful about Clam Casino’s blown out sound, it combines the ambient beauty of Tim hecker with a heavy focus on beats- it sounds otherworldly at times and the Rainforest EP is his best work yet.
3. Death Grips - Exmilitary
I hated this album at first, it scared with it’s incredibly loud shouty vocals and it’s bizarre production but it slowly grew on me. The track Takyon is one the most powerful hip-hop songs I’ve ever heard.
2. Danny Brown - XXX
So Danny Brown has a “unique” voice to say the least- it takes a while to get used to and he has a habit of switching flow styles from song to song and sometimes even in the middle of a song, but his songs have the ability be funny, depressing and disgusting all at once. His rapping style is incredible and the production here is fucking incredible, every track has memorable lyrics and memorable production.
1. Elite Gymnastics - R U I N
I’m finding it incredibly hard to describe this album but it’s definitely my favourite this year, there’s nothing quite like it- it reminds of japanese horror but also of trashy 80s pop from america combined with 90s DnB from england. I love how it’s split into two parts that take the same songs from one another but come out completely different.
old mash-up, gonna make some death grips ones soon
Q:sick content man. did you make any of those visuals? if so tight! if not still tight! hah
Hah yeah I actually did make the covers, they’re just some edits I’ve been doing, the most recent one was a cover for an album that I haven’t finished yet (but I hope to have it finished soon!).
This is Uninstalled, a lo-fi comedy series filmed entirely in Garry’s Mod. It’s a plot based comedy show about a guy named Phil. Phil is a guy who doesn’t like wasting time, unfortunately for him the job that his dad placed him in requires him to do exactly that. Getting paid for doing nothing sounds like a good deal but for Phil it’s the most depressing thing in the world, to make it worse he works with a dumb ass and a creepy transvestite (who also happens to be his boss).
New lo-fi comedy series filmed in Garry’s mod by me and a few others, written and edited by myself (also includes some original music by me and Borsty). It’ll start June the 4th.
Mux Mool x Felt - Get Better John x Ghost Dance Deluxe
I kinda really like this one.
I'm a british 18 year old who likes music, games and films. I sometimes make shitty mashups and I'm currently making a shitty album of shitty original music that is shitty.
