Customer Reviews

Fantastic Damage [Vinyl]

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

To sum it up as quick as possible.....This is the album that anyone who claims to love this artform called hip hop needs to buy today. This album is a bombardment on your senses from the moment it starts...you can almost tell he had influences from his appearance on the Techno Animal, Brotherhood of the Bomb cd...his ridiculous flow and RIDICULOUS beats are what progressive hip hop is.....actually forget that progressive mess...i'll leave that up to Anticon ;-) Seriously though....this is well worth the [what] you will pay on it. Consider yourself deaf and dumb if the song Dead Disnee doesn't have you shaking your head when you listen to it, i won't even ruin it for you but just know when he starts to spit...he kills the track. Its on par with Funcrusher Plus and The Cold Vein....and that is saying a [heck] of a lot about it considering that Funcrusher has been a classic since it dropped and Cold Vein is less than a year old and is one of the most revered underground albums ever. Jay-Z the greatest ever??....no good, EL dash is in my opinion. Yeah i'm a definitive jux fan but even if i hated Aesop Rock and Mr. Lif. or MURS or Can Ox...i would say this is the album that has set the standard in my buying process....right now..and probably 6 months from now...nothing will measure up....Get this now. If you can find it, get the End to End Burners cd single...he and Jus kill that too.

Peace

I think El-P may have birthed a new genre of music with this album. The production on this album is truly groundbreaking and unlike anything I've heard in any genre of music. When I first heard this album I felt the force of gravity increase. And my head hurt as well. Fantastic Damage is a brutal sonic experience. This is without a doubt the HEAVIEST Hip-Hop album ever produced(I'm not counting any... rap-rock hybrid). El-P uses rock guitars and elements of electronic music but it all conforms to his unique sound. El-P has crafted a convincing dystopian sci-fi epic that sounds 50 years ahead of it's time without abandoning Hip-Hop's b-boy roots. By juxtaposing futuristic imagery with old-school memories El-P has made an album that will likely hold up many years from now unlike most rap albums of today. It's album of not just looped beats but songs that change and evolve and devolve right before your ears. It definitely requires repeated listening to discover the many layers of sound and well-placed samples and noises.
The only drawback is that El's lyrics are sometimes buried underneath a crumbled wall of noise. But when the do come through, especially on tracks like Stepfather Factory, T.O.J., Truancy, etc. they are fresh, unique and often exceptional. El-P walks a fine line between insanity and genius.
Bottom line, this is the most significant Hip-Hop album to come out in years. Don't sleep, this will influence generations to come.

This album is now several years old but I can't stop thinking every time I listen still how it sounds years or decades ahead of its time. The closest comparison for this type of reaction (other than Canniabl Ox, of course) would have to be Dr. Octagon.

The reason for this is the production. El-P is unstoppable in the studio. He can make the most outrageous beats that only a few people in the world could ever rap over.

This music is like hard rock. I came back to rap music in late 90's after years of the industry being garbage. There was Wu and 'Illmatic' and Gang Starr and that's it. Then I found Octagon and then I was into the whole scene. I left rock music for the second time in my life (the first being in 1987-88) and can't go back to that horrid scene. And why would I with the Def Jux label coming out with harder stuff with more of a hard rock feel and sensibility than anything in rock music?

Def Jux is where it's at and hopefully they can continue and keep that dark, futuristic sound going and finding more rappers to help them out. Thank God for Lif and El P (and the other undergound masters). Real rap, for the rap fan who actually possesses brains and backbone.

One negative thing (about def jux) to be objective is Aesop's Bazooka Tooth a couple years back was sub-par. Old Aesop is far better. I hate that album.

Wow....this album is just incredible. I loved the Cold Vein to death, but this may surpass it. The beats are genius, absolutely genius. On track four, Tuned Mass Damper, there is this hella insane, tortured scream every few seconds that just works perfectly. Track six, deLorean with Aesop Rock is just a flawless song. They go back and forth, their lyrics bouncing off each other. In the middle of the song, there is this ... scratching session wit DJ Abilities and then Ill Bill from Non Phixion gets on the mic! Right when you think the song is about to end, El P and Aesop Rock get back on and flow for another minute!! This album is insane, there is nothing like it. If you liked the cold vein, cannibal ox, co flow, aesop rock, etc., this album will raise your respect for def jux by leaps and bounds. You MUST have this album, Any hip hop head, any Music fan period. I think the dopest song is Stepfather Factory. "Building tomorrows fathers today"..that is nice......wow

El-P, Ex-Mastermind of Underground Rap Pioneers Company Flow came back with a vengence last year with the release of this pioneering incredible cd. From the opening atmostpheric-noir moments, to the last refrain of "Do Right, Do Right, Do Right", this cd screams classic. The incrediblely inventive beats don't push the limits to what you expect from rap, they destroy them. In a genre typified by boring, simple, copycat, 3-second electronic loop beats, those presented in the 70 minutes of this cd are a new messiah. Of particular note are the opener, with its buildup of fairly intricate drum and bass, the use of not-quite horrified screams in Tune Massed Damper, the incrediblely intense sound of The Nang, and the melancholy (for this cd, anyway) in T.O.J.

The lyrics and delivery on the whole are excellent. The lyrics represent what Rap lyrics really should be: rather than simplistic story telling, which in the end sounds the same, the abstract, complex lyrics are fascinating, and many of the songs will take significant time to pick apart. Sure, this is no Aesop Rock, but its up there. As El-P says, "Did I sound abstract? I hope I was more confusing than that." In addition to his wonderous lyrics, the delivery stands out because while staying within the "rap" domain, delivers more emotion than you would expect to be possible. While I (along with most people) are tired of themes of dysfunction, the fascinating, inventive and emotional tale presented in Stepfather Factory has enormous emotional impact.

So what more can I say? This CD is amazing. Buy it if you think rap has grown stale, or never was worth anyting to begin with. You'll be suprised.

It's hard to believe I actually got into hip-hop like this. While I love underground hip-hop, this is below underground... this is like, intergalatic-space-wars hip-hop. While as unappealing as it sounds, it's perhaps one of the best CD's I've ever heard - it just took me about 8 months to realise this.

I've always had a fond interest for "way-out-there" hip-hop - I loved cannibal ox's debut album, and Aesop Rock was an instant appeal to me, which can't be said for others. But when i first started listening to El-P, which was this album, it was merely ok. It had it's highlights, like "Accidents Dont Happen" "Deep Space Nine MM" "Tuned Mass Damper" and "StepFather Factory" - which continue to be my favorites; but for the most part, I found this album to hard to listen too - the dysfunctional garage beats have a instant turn-off to the average listener - which seems to be everyone that first listens to this album. But for some reason, I kept going back to it. Kept listening. Each time, I found a track that I normally would totally skip or not like, and ended up liking it. Before I knew it, I liked the whole album, not skipping one track. I ended up buying the instrumental disk and loved that as well. In fact... the instrumentals of this CD is pretty bad-ass. This CD has gave me great inspiration to make beats, and not be afraid to try something new or something out of the ordinary, in fear of someone rejecting it. Innovating is the key here.

Whether you hate EL-P or not, there's no doubt this CD is a breath of fresh air in a rather stagnet rap game.
EL-P is like the metallica of hip-hop - alot of the beats on here are just straight trash beats, with tons of synths and samples - but strangely, it works - and it works to El's advantage. "Tuned Mass Damper" has to be the freakiest hip-hop song I've ever heard. If you have headphones.. just crank that song up hella loud into your ears, and allow the earie screams and howls samples to penitrate your brain - only leaving your hairs standing. "StepFather Factory" is just a great concept - and horrorfying at the same time.

With each listen - it grows to be one of the greatest Hip-Hop CD's to be produced... it doesn't have the bling bling cover, it doesn't have the bouncey boucny, "In Da Club" beats - but that's what makes it so intense and pleasurable to listen too.

This album is on Darth Vader's Walkman. Buy it. Go.