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Written by Abe Forman-Greenwald
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Sunday, 26 May 2002 |
Definitive Jux
"Fantastic Damage" is a perfect description for this album of densely
layered beats that serve as a soundtrack for El-P's tour through a
dystopian urbanscape. Almost every beat on the album is so rich and
evocative it seems a shame that El-P has to bark over almost every one
of them. Some of his lyrical concepts work well, as on the track
"Stepfather Factory" where he effectively constructs and deconstructs a
company that churns out indistinguishable, abusive father figures. This
is one of the few tracks where he takes his vocals down to a
conversational level and it works really well. On too much of the album
though, his vocals come off as monotonous yelling which undermines the
power of his intelligent lyrics. El-P has an uncommon problem for an
MC—so much he needs to say that he is unable to fit all of his lyrics
into his allotted lines of verse. This problem of too many words to go
around is particularly noticeable on the verses of "Truancy". When he
slows the rhymes down during the chorus, each lyric becomes more potent
and fits well into the rhythm. He also uses an interesting approach at
the beginning of "Dead Disnee" where he adjusts his cadence and rhyme
scheme to mimic that of the early De La Soul single "Plug Tunin'".
While paying respect to an earlier, more creative era of hip-hop, he
also demonstrates how a varied rhyme style can compliment a song.
Unfortunately, the rest of the song falls into his same abrasively
monotonous pattern. Most of the album's lyrical content falls into the
"conscious lyrics" category—which makes some of the slips into standard
hip-hop homophobia all the more frustrating.
But all M.C. criticism aside, the beats are consistently varied and no
loop is repeated long enough to wear out its welcome. El-P shows his
strongest talent lies in production by introducing many experimental
sounds and effects rarely added to the hip-hop mix. He uses lots of
distorted synths and electric guitar samples and mixes them over
programmed, organic sounding drums to head-nodding affect. My favorite
moments in the album all occur when he turns off the vocals for a
stretch and lets his instrumentals shine. DJ Abilities compliments the
layered beats successfully by adding texture without showing off his
speed. His best contribution is in the middle of "Delorian" where he
uses his scratches as one of the instruments in the band rather than as
a solo spotlight.
I will certainly be looking out for a future version of "Fantastic
Damage" instrumentals because the beats are innovative and I would like
to hear how each one sounds on its own. If you can get through 70
minutes worth of severe vocals, the album does go out on one of its
strongest notes with the grandly cinematic final track, "Blood". And be
sure to listen for that tight instrumental at the end that kicks into
high gear after the vocals have faded away.
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