Customer Reviews

Arrhythmia

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

O.K.== Heads are obviously aurally unprepared for this release in the present time
>>Maybe your kids will rock it in 2027<<
The 4 artists working here(three MCees)all produce the beats adding plenty of variation on the styles. There's solo songs, tag teams, group anthems and Moogsynth infected instr-mentals. Their sounds incorporate a number of old school drum machines and analog saws and sweeps, even some samples here and there. But to say they are just talking over the beat shows lack of concentration. They create unpredictable patterns, they make beats out of water droplets, robo-voices, shopping carts slamming into each other, they defy what is expected from the mainstream, and they get an A+ shelving in my Hiphop collection!

---->Listen to the 'Ping Pong(the Return)' sample>
M.Saayid says "My symphonic monopoly philosophy/sloppily etches notes akwardly/a quater to three/brass amp with a gas lamp/white wig slang Wolfgang/English chamber orchestrating a deadly banger/cliffhanger"--->> If that don't Bang your Brain your cord's unplugged.... Or you don't like avant-hop/anti-pop.
Not that 'Ping Pong' is the best track on the album, just the most exemplary of the samples given here. My favorites are 'Dead in Motion','Ghostlawns' and 'Focused'.
On 'The Conspiracy of Myth' I hear a Fellowship/Blowed style funk influence (Aceyalone was a past guest on 'Tragic Epilogue').There may be slight signs of influences ranging from Kool Kieth to The RZA, from Mikah Nine to Nine inch Nails, from Can to Deep Purple, from Brian Eno to Isao Tomita...you get the shot.
Buy 'em while they're not hot(the masses will eventually catch on...I think....) It's good the Warp label picked 'em up, because its already very difficult to get a hold of a few of their earlier releases, like 'Shopping Carts Crashing' (Japan Only CD) still available here on Amazon.Com, for a limited time I'm sure. Get a piece of the future of Hip Hop, before it becomes a classic piece of the past(They'll find this one on Mars, with vocals personally translated by the Consortium themselves).

OK, I am deffintely into underground Hip-Hop and this disc has reinforced my interest into the "funkadelic" unknown. I heard about this trippin triad from a friend with similar interests to my own, and went to this website to check them out. I listened to samples of the first couple tracks and i was hooked. I bought the cd from this website and was totally pshyced to have it. I listened to it and was just as impressed as I had expected. The cd is full of crazy sounds and beats, but has plenty of orginality that gives this disc true uniqueness and style. If you are a fan of groups like Digable Planets, Binary Star, Self-Scientific, and Kool Keith, you should deffinitely check these guys out!

this album... someone called them Public Enemy without the political stuff. Pretty much... doesn't do them justice. They went so much further on this one than the one before (Radiohead asked them to open for them) and it still didn't exhaust their creative juices - although it DID take them about 7 years to break up, get back together and make a follow-up. Listen to a couple of the samples to see if their energy is right for you - they're not for everyone. But if something says "pick it up", listen already. I'm trying to give a conceptual review because there's so many different sounds on this album that I honestly don't know where to start. It kicks off with a GREAT one and just gets better. *gush gush gush* I know, but they put this one out on WARP records. WARP does electronic acts - one of my friends at work described this album as guys rapping over IDM and that pretty much sums it up.

If that's something you appreciate, pick it up.

I have a soft spot in my heart for them - I loaned the previous album (Tragic Epilogue) to two different people and had to make a point of wanting it back. this one is better.

be careful where you play it though - the day I first got this, I went from the record shop to work and played it there... the poor girl I was scheduled with that day and I got into a most inappropriate fight while people were coming by and getting coffee. the grudge lasted all day. she was really cute, but I thought she was lazy. she thought I was too much of a hard@$$, but she never made... see? it's a loaded album for me. even now.

there are energies in this album, though, because the music wasn't tainted for me even with the drama of that day. it's just that good.

I'd go into a track by track listing, but there's no point. it's an experience. kind of like trying to go into all the reasons you're with the one you're with - no point in breaking it down because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts... but the parts are REALLY good. did I mention they make a beat by bouncing a ping pong ball?

if you put this on between Li'l Jon and Li'l Wayne at a party, God help you.

if you put this on at the wrong time of day, brace yourself.

if you put this on in headphones, you'll have a huge s-eating grin for the duration, but no one will really understand why.

they have a new album out, called Fluorescent Black, but this is the one where things got more interesting. they decided not to make a flow throughout the album and their music was better for it. the only flow is disruption - but what else would you expect of an album called Arrhythmia?

By 'outsider' I mean a person who isn't a typically a hip hop listener. My interests being more in things like electronica, industrial and indie I found this disc to be very enjoyable.

I'll admit that the at times abstract lyrics caught my attention, and being a fan of expermental and avant garde material in general I was happy to hear the inventive wordplay.

However what I really like about this disc is the sounds and beats of the record. Occasionally I hear a piece of music that makes my head feel like spinning, and this was one of them(and I mean that in the best way). This isn't normal sounding hip hop, but i'm guessing most people reading this already have that idea. All the blips and beeps, and crazy beats keep you on your toes.

I'm very sad that this group has broken up, finally a hip hop group I would of really have liked to have seen.

2002 was a great year for lots of adventurous sounds in hip-hop, and this is one of few cds from that year that I still can't seem to hear enough of. Unlike many of the "experimental hip hop" acts, APC didn't seem to give up on the key things that I like about rap music - the clever rhymes delivered by people who know how to rap, and the sense of flow within a song. These tracks are at the same time fun, stimulating and minimal. The production is mostly synthesizer-based, which is unusual at a time when many other acts are taking the sample-heavy route. Here it's a refreshing change. You can tell lots of time was taken to make the little moments happen, whether it's a quick blast of digital distortion on the vocals, or sound effect or electronic squiggle to fit in perfectly with the lyrics at a particular point. I often use this cd to get people into 20th century electronic music (Xenakis, etc) & avant-garde to open their ears to hip-hop. It's a shame that APC split up right after bringing the quality of their work to this high point.

"We are not reactionary." This quote comes from High Priest, one of the emcees in New York's Anti-Pop Consortium, and it's an important one to keep in mind. The aptly titled Arrhythmia impressively represents the quartet's credo, "Disturb the equilibrium." These songs repeatedly undercut the listener's conceptions of what experimental hip-hop should be all about.

Arrhythmia constantly builds and destroys a sonic and lyrical palette that trains its sight on the future. It avoids the tired and overpopulated territory of 1988 revivalism, where much of underground rap's past promise has gone to seed. The 15 tracks blend the electronic with the organic, and switch genres without regard for convention. Yet they maintain an ethic that doesn't seek to subvert hip-hop, but to exalt and advance the art into another phase. In this respect, Anti-Pop shares in the aspirations of some of rap's more mainstream visionaries, such as Timbaland or Wu-tang's RZA.

But don't get it twisted. No one will ever mistake "We Kill Soap Scum" for your average Wu-banger. Which is perhaps why, at this moment in rap's evolution, the Anti-Pop Consortium succeeds as alt-rap media heroes, while the Wu, once the apex of the hip-hop pyramid, now struggles to remain vital in a world of their own design. Listen to "Human Shield," the last song on Arrhythmia; check the rhymes as they are distorted, stretched and compressed, accelerated and decelerated, throwing the listener off the course of the album's most traditionally hardcore beat. Now, pull out Wu-tang's The W. On "Redbull," RZA intermittently buries his emcees beneath rolling drums, reducing their voices to additional percussive instruments. Sound experimentation is key for both RZA and APC. But these groups exist in different solar systems, and their stars rise and fall not for what they do, but because of location, location, location.

And Anti-Pop, recording on a record label free from the trappings of the rap industry, has located itself perfectly. Arrhythmia is a dense 45-minute slab of convention-be-damned hip-hop. The tracks jump from the electro-funk of "Bubblz" to "Dead in Motion"'s frenetic race to oblivion. From "Ghostlawns'" new-wave bounce to "Open Mausoleum," where synth whines and spare drums peel away to reveal a refrain of Portishead-style atmospherics and minor keys. "Mega" features an opera chorus that is followed by M. Saayid rhyming over the screams of primates. Not quite "Get Ur Freak On," and that's not good or bad. But it certainly isn't reactionary.

The emcee trio of APC, who all contribute to the production as well, show higher reverence to hip-hop in their rhymes, seamlessly interlocking with the beats and each other, and never getting lost inside their own sonic hall of mirrors. Each brings something distinctive to the table: Priest's voice is deep and commanding, Beans' flow floats from relaxed to frenetic and is always smooth, and Saayid's staccato delivery boils over with attitude and confidence. They succeed because they are intelligent and innovative without sounding academic, disturbing the equilibrium without undermining their roots. Rap for a near future, unafraid and unfettered.

Robert Albanese
May 2002
Junkmedia.org Review1

With sounds from retro video games and lryics that can kill the sober, this album is APC's best work!

A very addictive album indeed.

It really grows on you.

The Anti-Pop Consortium returns to the scene with their first full-length release for Warp Records - "Arrhythmia". This is my first exposure to the three emcees/producers (Ball Beans, High Priest and M. Sayyid) that make up this grade A brand of experimental hip-hop. I would like to point out that this is nothing like the experimentation of the Anticon collective. It works much better in the sense that they hold stronger to their hip-hop roots. The music rarely feels intimidating, and they don't try to outsmart their underground/mainstream counterparts (even though they do at times). It's a brilliant fusion between hip-hop and electronica. And although some of the beats are complex, much of the mix is quite minimal. There are rarely more than three elements being mixed at once, which makes it much easier to concentrate on the relentlessly seeping lyrical flows. The balance feels flawless, since the beats and loops brought forth sound very inventive, well-crafted, and on point.

The notable highlights would include the well-cut simplicity of "Ping Pong", "Dead in Motion", "Ghostlawns", the tweaked out notes on "We Kill Soap Scum", and the intoxicating reverb and sick battle rhymes of my personal favorite track "Z St.".

Although the Antipop Consortium will throw hip-hop heads a curve ball, it is nothing that a true fan of hip-hop wouldn't enjoy. It gorgeously represents an inventive minimal approach of familiar elements, which showcases their impressive and unique rhyme styles brilliantly. Definitely a keeper.

Spastic beats with glitchy sounds skittering around the bass, manic, inspired rhymes, with left-field samples and events in nearly every track. Shoots you in the normal and lets your slaughtered spirit squirt free.

To put it another way, it's ... with your stereo, and not the kind you had last Tuesday.

Yes.

M Sayyid and High Priest have been recording under the name airborn audio. Their debut album is coming out on Ninja Tune on Feb 22nd 2005.