Customer Reviews

The Weather

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like asking a Sasquatch to taste your Gazpacho. That's a nice watch, bro. Bought it from Costco. God, I like pasta. God is a monster. Monsters are modern. Inventions forgotten. Potatoe-au-gratin. Cradle your thoughts in a stable of oxen, thick ankles for socks and...I'll strangle your Datsun with a Subaru Walkman.
-radioinactive
--The whole album is like this, irreverant, complex, and often illogical lyrics mixed impeccably with well-produced yet odd beats. Its a great experimental, intelligent, humorous, hiphop album that may well point into the direction of a future for this subgenre within california hiphop.

This is simply the best hip hop album I've heard - great
production, amazing rhymes, off the wall humour... A must
have.

As with all Busdriver releases, this album is an immediate classic. If you've never heard Busdriver, I'm afraid you don't know what hiphop is about these days. Busdriver stands alongside Mikah-9 and Aceyalone and a few others as one of the most stylistically advanced MCs of all time. All of his albums are must-haves: "This Machine Kills Fascists," "Memoirs of the Elephant Man," and "Temporary Forever," along with numerous cameo appearances with CVE, 2mex, Fat Jack, and other Project Blowedians and Afterlifers. Busdriver flows jazz-inspired lightning-quick delivery with a voice as unique and inimitable as Bootsy Collins' and rhymes as intelligent as Paul Barman's.

But then again, I'm a fan. Perhaps his style is not for everyone. Some people think John Coltrane "sounds weird." Such people need to stick to their pop music.

Enough about Busdriver... This is a band, so to speak -- The Weather -- filled out by the gifted MC Radioinactive and producer Daedelus. Radioinactive (the goat in Beneath the Surface's "Farmer's Market of the Beast") is a perfect match for Busdriver, with a comparable and complementary delivery and quirky intelligence. In short, they are a perfect team. I can't wait to cop Radioinactive's "Pyramidi." Daedelus provides the childlike, bizarre backdrop for all of this beautiful verbal madness. These three guys were made for each other, the whole album is slick as heck. Also check out Busdriver's other work with Daedelus.

You can tell these guys listen to a lot of They Might Be Giants. (This isn't conjecture; Busdriver has admitted it in interviews.) This hiphop is so good that it doesn't have to brag about itself. This hiphop can act dorky and still serve you up on a platter like no problem. It is humorous, insightful, poetic, and above all, madly skilled.

If you are unfamiliar with these guys and youre not sure that you like artsy hiphop, first start off with Busdriver's "Memoirs" & "Temporary Forever," which adhere a little more strictly to the classic hiphop formula. But if you want some mind-blowing experimental 2003 hiphop, check out the Weather.

This is one of the greatest hiphop albums of all time! If you like The Weather check out "Live Airplane Food," which is a live EP of Busdriver freestyling over Daedelus and his live band doing music from Invention. Also, 2mex and Busdriver's new live album has Busdriver doing a track from The Weather, "Fine for a Robot."

Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of all three of these brilliant artists. Busdriver may be on of the greatest free style rappers in the US and Radioinactive's style and ability to use rhyme and alliteration to stream out dozens of words on each beat is damn near godly. Combine these two verbal wizards with Daedelus, who can turn 1940's soundtracks and keyboard sounds into techno benevolence, and you'd think you'd have the recipe to the greatest CD ever. Or not...

Apparently, the grouping of these three mega talents spelled diaster when it came time to produce something worth listening to. This CD starts off with a surprising bang in "Exaggerated Joy" The faux-political humor in "Pen's Oil" mixes well with the children's song used for the melody (a reaccuring theme in this CD). "Carl Weathers" is shocking so much for the speed at which Busdrived and Radioinactive rap IN UNISON as for the drastic change with Daedelus' beats. While B&R keep the lyrics light-hearted and witty, Daedelus scraps the cheerful beats for dreary synth sounds and the clunk of metal. Sadly, the rest of the CD never recuperates from this change. There are some glimmering rays of hope such as the wonderful whistling song "Weather Locklear" which I defy anyone not to whistle all day once they hear it. But it is constant spiral downward from beginning til horrible end. The final track "Barely Music" is exactly that. It is a hodgepodge of the worst sounds ever to be recorded mixed together with Busdriver only adding to the audial onslaught. The inlet provides us with some hint of what went wrong as the last two songs feature completely different lyrics than what ends up on the CD. These two songs are also completely devoid of Radioinactive, as if he knew that they would end up being utter garbage.

Knowing these guys very well and being a huge fan of all of them seperately, I bought this CD with very high expectations. Suffice to say I was extremely disappointed with the final product. Do yourself a favor and buy their solo albums. Might I suggest: Busdriver's "Fear the Black Tangent", Radioinactive's amazing "Free Kamal" (arguably the greatest CD ever), and Daedelus' "Exquiste Corpse".

That said, I hope the trio comes back for a second shot at "the weather" because I know they can do better.

Anyone even glancing at this page probably needs no rehashed preface about any of these three musicians. The only similarities they share include having unique styles and having the capacity to produce wonderful musical artifacts. Like some other reviewers here, however, i was dissapointed with what came to fruition when these three musicians collaborated.

The album's shortcoming isn't that it's too homogenous compared to hip hop or electronic music's other offerings - no, far from it. The album is an example of the distillation of quirky electronica, lo-fi, speedy lyricism, and playful sampling. The potential for such a combination really shines in tracks like "Exaggerated Joy", "Name Forgetter", and "Glorified Hype Man". Unfortunately, these tracks along with a couple of others, are the only songs that I found listenable and utterly enjoyable after one playing of them.

The pitfalls of the album come in the form of ADD. I say this because some of the tracks seem like the musicians had no apparent focus when recording them. While a lack of focus can be a good thing sometimes - even resulting in memorable, skittish tracks - it fails on this album. Tracks like Barely Music and DJ Furry have are without a crowning moment that makes them standout. The beats simply meander without climax or memorability. Other tracks like "Sleep Standing Up" and "Thousand Words", while good, are equally forgettable because they come off as a canvas for the musicians (Radioinactive and Busdriver, respectively) to see how fast they can rhyme instead of seeing how *well* they can rhyme. On these two tracks, especially, Daedelus's inventive beatmaking talent takes a backseat. In fact, all of the forgettable tracks on the album have this same attribute: a lack of good instrumentals to support the two rappers.

The album, overall, is good, but not great and definitely shouldn't be seen as an example of what the inventive and original Daedelus and Bus Driver (I'm not including Radioinactive in this list because I'm not really a fan of his solo music) can create on their own. Tracks like "Quiet Now feat. Busdriver" on Daedelus's beautiful "Invention" album is more indicative of what the two can do when they try hard enough. The Weather amazes the listener the first play through because of the speedy lyricism, but quickly becomes forgettable after its novelty wears off and you realize deficiency of good beats on many of the tracks.

Regardless of what you may hear, The Weather is a very impressive album from producer Daedelus and LA hip-hop Underground Kings, Busdriver and Radioinactive! This is a solid effort from all the artists that collaborated to make The Weather! This album is truly on point lyrically and on the production side. The Weather is a nice work of art from beginning to end. I've been enjoying this CD for awhile now and it still sounds fresh and witty! I never get tired of listening to this musical masterpiece. It's definitely worth the flow!

The tracks that stand out for me are:
Exaggerated Joy (a nice Intro to the creative madness ahead),

Pen's Oil (just cause the world runs on oil doesn't mean oil men should run the world),

Carl Weathers (chill beat with very mellowed out flows from both artist rhyming n' sync),

Glorified Hype Man (a favorite, this track is about how Busdriver and Radioinactive wanting to pursue solo careers, lol),

Fine For A Robot (Busdriver sings with Radioinactive on that smooth player type flow),

Germ That May Cause The Following (insane track with both artist rhyming back in forth and in n' sync),

Weather Locklear (another favorite with Mikah 9 doing a whistling solo throughout the entire track, that will have you, whistling all day, lol),

Break For 2300 (a nice Instrumental/Intermission track from Daedelus),

DJ Furry (DJ ESP on the wheels of steel, cutting up the track, GO DJ, GO!),

Raffle Ticket Blues (Radioinactive rips this track up, he spits that Venomous Fire!),

Sleep Standing Up (nice beat, nice flow with both artists rhyming n' sync),

Name Forgetter (a favorite, Radioinactive completely shines on this track solo),

Thousand Words (very impressive/creative track from Busdriver!!) and

Barely Music (ends the disc with an insane beat and abstract flows with guest appearance from 2Mex, Circus, AWOL One and Daddy Kev on co-production. Everyone is lyrically on point with insane abstract flows).

And did I mention, Daedelus is a genius on the production tip throughout this entire album! Also get Rethinking The Weather, an instrumental album to The Weather by Daedelus with a nice twist and variation to each track.

SUPPORT! ENJOY!

I haven't heard much of Radioinactive(I regret saying that..).....but one artist I really know is Busdriver.........and man are these two cats on point...they complement each other so well on the mic (reminiscent of Freestyle Fellowship) you'd swear they were doin this together since.....I don't know when...Well I'm afraid I don't know much of Daedelus (Damn I really regret saying that...)All I can say is his production are UNIQUE, Very Nice, and so well exeuted throughout the album.......People if you are looking for good "BLING BLING" rap.......you are way off course...These artists don't compromise Quality for Quantity......this offering is blazing.....when I play this I don't even bother looking for the remote coz the whole album is off the hook...On last sentence......you definitely won't find anything similar to this not even Freestyle Fellowship (They are the Legends , in my opinion) ...................Cap this one and you would have done Hip Hop some justice.......Peace......Carelessly Cavorting

i was seriously disappointed when i heard this album !!!!!!!!!
i didnt go listen with a biased ear, however knowing the potential of the two artists compelled me to believe that could have made some serious hard hitters. They seemed as if all the intended on doing was stoking eachothers ego ! any real hip hop head would agree and not get caught up in the vanity of pseudo artsy sttyling.