Fantastic Damage

El-P

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 14, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Definitive Jux
• ASIN: B000063VAW
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #89,956 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The debut solo album from El-P, Fantastic Damage finds the rap firebrand expanding on the confrontational themes that have characterized his career to date. As the guiding influence of influential hip-hop trio Company Flow, founder of the indie label Def Jux, and producer for Cannibal Ox's outstanding apocalyptic rap work The Cold Vein, El-P has become synonymous with the new breed of left-field hip-hoppers. But Fantastic Damage is quite possibly his most extreme statement yet: a sprawling magnum opus of broiling anger and dysfunctional angst, expressed through his abrasive production techniques and satirical rhymes. In spirit, the music echoes the revolutionary squall of the Bomb Squad, while not actually sounding like it: the blistering funk of "Deep Space 9mm" boasts a more syrupy feel than Public Enemy's tight jams, while "Dead Disnee" has more in common with the modern wave of laptop-wielding electronica artists than any traditional rap groove. Rhyme-wise, too, this is a bleak work, as El-P envisions apocalyptic futures ("Stepfather Factory") and waxes unprintable about his former record label ("Deep Space 9mm"). At 70 minutes, it's on the long side, but anyone acquainted with El-P's earlier work should lap this up. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Album of the decade, October 24, 2003

By A Customer

I'll admit, it took me months to get into FanDam. This album IS NOT EASILLY ACCESSABLE. I cannot emphasize this enough. If it weren't for my fondness for "Stepfather Factory" I might have never, ever gotten into FanDam. It's dense, it's thick, El-Ps lyrics are rapid fire and merciless. This album has no tutorial, no learning curve, no helping hand. FanDam just throws itself at you, its teeth locked on your jugular.

El-P has produced the album of the decade. Track after track of sublime production (and it takes dozens of listens to truly appreciate) and unparalelled verbal assault (and it takes dozens of listens also). From the brilliant, creative opening to the cathartic, catchy end, FanDam is a comet that will be unmatched for a long time on the music scene (I don't say this lightly, I'm a music superfreak and rap is not my favorite genre).

El-P is brilliant doing everything from dystopianism (Stepfather Factory) to meaningfull emotion (the beautiful and sad Toj) to just having fun (Dr. Hell No (Oh Yes I Did)) to his core style of gritty recollection (Truancy, Deep Space 9mm).

Buy this album. Listen to it. You'll hate it. Keep listening. Keep giving it the benfit of the doubt. It's the most user unfriendly music I've ever encountered with the possible exception of godspeed. Makes Kid A, Sigur Ros, Can Ox, and anything else difficult you care to name look like hooky pop rock. Give FanDam time, give it listens, and it will reward you. An unbelievably good album.

Picks: Easiest to get into: Stepfather Factory and Tuned Mass Damper. Favorites: Truancy and Lazerface's Warning.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suckas better reckognize...El-P is king of dirty-ill, HipHop, February 27, 2003

By	Matthew Jaworski (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am shocked by the amount of terrible reviews this album has recieved. Could it possibly be that those reviewers are feeble-minded sissy's? That is very likely. This is one beautifully ugly, hard-hitting, apocalyptic, punk/noise driven Hip Hop classic. The beats on this album are out of sight. Complex, ill, heavy, dirty funky. True hip hop in the punk rock spirit. Includes El-P's vastly improved flow. Complete with lovely sci-fi, anti-government, paranoia, and psychedelically tinged metaphor. This is my favorite hip-hop album from last yeat. Claustraphobic, dense, liberating, and mind bending. Don't heed the nay-sayers, let you're own ears decide,. and decode this dirty, dark, apocalyptic LP of real Hip Hop from the dark underworld of The Rotten Apple, NYC.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I think my lasers my head my spill out..., December 20, 2002

By	El Reanimator-o (The CO) - See all my reviews

Before I heard this, I had pretty much given up on hip hop. None of it excited me anymore, and I had never really liked most of it in the first place. Some here and there was OK, but I never really felt the vibe. Then I bought this. After the first track, I was hooked. I knew I'd be liking this. El-P's razor sharp poetic flow and killing machine efficent production drew me into the rubble of the bling bling world, bombed and raided. After a few listens, I couldn't stop playing it. I haven't liked an album like this in ages. There are so many highlights here. "Deep Space 9mm" bangs with some funky drumming around a battlefield of a background, with El-P ranting hypnotically about the chaos around him. El with Aesop Rock absolutely slays everything in sight with "Delorean". They really take it back to the time when ........ could rock. This is my favorite. It's lethal, and I haven't heard anyone flow so tightly together in ages as Ace Rock and El-P do. "Accidents Don't Happen" is ill as hell too. It just sends shivers down my spine every time. It's bleak, but at least it's told how it is. Nelly lovers are warned to stay well clear. And "Lazerface's Warning" is possibly the most insane thing on plastic I've ever heard.
I have to say though, this isn't for the mainstreamers. It's pretty harsh in tone, very industrial. I recommend it to anyone interested in a completely new creature in the music kingdom, or anyone interested to more abstract electronic music (as I was). There isn't a track here I don't like. My professer was even impressed with "Stepfather Factory", which I included in a poetry anthology I had to compile for the class. Probably the best album of 2002. Buy it, any check out the whole Def Jux label. Nothing but quality.