2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unfairly Slept On, Excellent Experimental Hip-Hop, December 28, 2010
For those who haven't heard of Cyne, Cyne is a very underrated and overlooked Experimental Hip-Hop group formed in Gainseville Florida. Combining lyrics based on the philosophy of Rousseau and other random subjects (Apocalypse Now and 2001 reference for the win!), an urban cool Trip Hop influences, a very rich, comforting, and warm sound, and interlocking rhythms that will lock into you're dancing tendencies for days, Cyne is one heck of a Hip-Hop group, and they are excellent at that. Dope stuff.
The production values here are ace, and the music in the back is warm, soulful, jazzy, and infectious. Cyne uses a wide array of sounds and instruments, and the album has an experimental sound that offers a fresh look on each track; you won't hear the same sounding song twice. Throbbing bass lines, jazzy instrumentation, beats that can be graceful, interlocking, deep, or hard hitting. I use the word warm a lot to describe this, and I think it's kind of app, given that the music is lively and . They also manage to pack a sound scape made up of exotic sounds and creative sampling, whether it's the golden shine of Running Water, the aura of a golden stream of Arrow of God, a melange of the ocean, moonlight, and city of Moonlight, or a type of dark spacey feeling on Earth of Haze. Overall, it will make you lock into the groove and won't let you go until the track is over.
The rapping here is dynamic and flowing, widely varied, fast when it needs to be, slower and more concentrated when it needs to be as well. These guys are definitely skilled MC's, and they possess variety to make the rhymes keep you on your toes. Sometimes liquid smooth, sometimes boastful, sometimes jazzy, and sometimes, a Cyne record has all of this, and they don't disappoint. Besides just rapping, they happen to throw at you some of those catchy harmonious vocals. The choruses for example, are sometimes sung, with a sort of warm harmonious (see Moonlight) feel that gives the songs great emotion. Dense, smooth, and fluid in intelligence, Cyne live and breath expressing themselves through rhyming and rapping, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
There are many highlights here. I like Moonlight for it's warm, urban-cool, and jazzy rhythms, perfect song for late night city drives. _____ America, despite the generic title, is one of the strongest songs here, with a almost menacing, booming slow burner that takes it slow while letting the rapping dominate with a fast, jazzy, and smooth lyrics a mile a minute. Automaton is a great catchy song that attacks sheepish people, short and to the point, fierce and assertive. Running Water is just golden each way, with an aesthetic that flows as gorgeous as a river filled with gold. Growing has a golden summer haze that is perfect for a quite Sunday walk through a college town. Overall, you won't be bored by any of the fifteen unique tracks, and each one of them will make you want to get down on the dance floor faster than a weasel with it's tail on fire.
I won't lie. This isn't quite a perfect album, as some of the songs aren't AS good as top tracks like Haze, Moonlight, Automaton, etc. It doesn't have the extremely consistent quality that a perfect album should. I'd give it a near five stars instead of a full five stars (it's too good for four stars). Despite this, this is an uncovered gem, a Hip-Hop album that deftly blends experimental and intoxicating rhythms, heavy, referenced-filled, and intelligent lyrics, and an able to blend both of them into an infectious and listenable whole. Highly, highly recommended if you like such artists like ATQC, Jurassic 5, De la Soul, Nas, Digable Planets, oh, just about any hip-hop fan (noting I'm not including people who think the pinnacle of rap is Soulja Boy, Webbie, Ying Yang Twins, or any other disposable ring tone rappers).
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