Customer Reviews

Instrumentalyst: Octagon Beats

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Few albums can claim such auspicious genesis: Dan the Automator, making history with futuristic, mind-bending beats, Q-bert scratching himself raw, and Kool Keith reduced to a vague, meandering warble on the few vocal blips that make it through the otherwise undefineable hiphop landscape presented here. Make no mistake, there is nothing, and there will never be nothing, kids, like Instrumentalyst. Without peer, without premise, without imitation. This album will get into your bloodstream. This album will turn you away from all the fakers, the players, the haters, the bitchez and hoze, all those who don't know a goddamn thing about what hip and hop really is. Forward thinking, yes. A dream inside an octagon box of mirrors is more like it. Treat your ears and imagination to this rich, wonderful and most of all SPOOKY album--it has delighted every cool party i have ever thrown, guaranteed, sparked wild, sacreilgious conversation, been worshipped and bowed to, cried over, danced, jumped, shouted to, all manner of twilight behavior, etc... Gentlemen, you have been only fooled by music until you have heard the Instrumentalyst masters. You think your heroes have balls? Eminem, with all his talent, could never have the foresight or guts put out an album like this. Tribe? Crushed by the Instrumentalyst shadow. Find yourself a dark night, some peace, and let this one steep. In. Your. Mind. Oh, and they did this YEARS ago, in the skool they tore down to build the old skool.

Dr. Octagon: The Instrumentalyst (Octagon Beats) is what the title implies, the instrumental version (the music - beats, samples, and scratches) of the 1996 album Dr. Octagonecologyst. Dr. Octagon is former Ultramagnetic MC's member Kool Keith. The background music is by Dan the Automator (also from Handsome Boy Modeling School) with scratching by DJ Qbert so the wealth of talent on the original recording make it essential. Kool Keith's lyrics and rhyme skills are something to behold. It may well be the strangest of it's kind. So since this instrumental album is basically everything except Kool Keith, there is that element missing. However, this is one case where the music and vocals complement each other. I first heard the album in it's original format with Kool Keith intact and the inventive use of beats and background music was as unique as he was. So when I found that there was also an instrumental version I had to have that as well. Highlights are plenty, but a few personal favorites are "No Awareness", "Blue Flowers", "Technical Difficulties", "A visit to the gynecologist" (although the original is a guilty pleasure), "Girl let me touch you", and of course "Moosebumps" which is a longer version (1:47) of the original album's "I got to tell you" (:48). This one especially works for me because it's a track that I always wanted to last longer with just the music. Bottom line if you liked the original's music or are just a fan of creative trip or hip hop beats, then this won't disappoint. One of the best of it's kind. Dr. Octagon only made one album. I recommend owning both versions.

Also recommended:

Ultramagnetic MC's: Critical Beatdown
Dan the Automator: Deltron 3030/Tron 3030 - The Instrumentals
DJ Qbert: Wave Twisters

When I originally heard the original Dr. Octagon album, I thought Keith's raps were cool and weird, but I was really moved by the tripped out, spacey funk that was his music. The whole time I was listening to the CD, I was thinking: "they should release an instrumental version of this. People who don't even like hip-hop might get into this." And so here we are. I must not have been TOO off the mark then. Recommended for fans of acid jazz, DJ records and just plain ole' weirdness (DJ Spooky, Skratch Piklz, etc.)

First of all- fattest hip hop beats ever. 72 minutes long! sencond- Q- BERT on almost every kut! - MORE? - - it is altered drasticaly from the original version, altered to perfektion.

First of all- fattest hip hop beats ever. 72 minutes long! sencond- Q- BERT on almost every kut! - MORE? - - it is altered drasticaly from the original version, altered to perfektion.

Actually, I would have preferred some of the songs like Blue Flowers and Girl Let Me Touch You to stay the original way they are, which kinda put me alittle down in there.

But, other than that, it's real good and worth to hear if you want some instrumentals. I realize some people actually just wanted the instrumentals, but personally I prefer hearing Kool Keith's lyrics... I just somehow get in the mood to drop them because they were meant to be there, anyways. If you like this sorta thing, recommended you go to Automator's albums or something.

But, Kool Keith has alot more instrumental albums on his own as well if you were satisfied with Blue Flowers or Girl Let Me Touch You, his parts of production.

I won't elaborate on this review like I do all of my other reviews but let me say something about this work of art.

Its the best instrumental album you can get. This should be part of any music collection. Not just hip-hop, but all kinds. If you don't feel this type of production then you just aren't on this level yet, your mind isn't prepared. If you listen to "commercial" hip-hop then don't bother with this here. If you have an open mind for music then you will more than likely find this to be a sweet discovery.

NOT AS ASS-KICKIN' AS THE VOCALS,BUT THE ADDITION PRODUCTION MOVES YA WHILE KEITH TAKES A BREAK. IF YOU HAVE "DR. OCTAGON" WITH THE VOCALS,THE INSTRUMENTALS ARE JUST AS GOOD. GET IT FOR THE MIX.

The shadowy world of Dr. Octagon, a place where gothic, hip-hop dubs reign, where sad, gypsy violins float in and out of stoic composition. Airy, jazz-driven flutes, bleak and barren rhythms, palatable emptiness in which ephemeral public service announcements materialize and evaporate...

More Dan, less Keith. Different enough, not too different from Octagyno. Freakin' great.