geekent's Buy Nothing Year

Re-Review: My Vinyl Weighs A Ton - I was huge into hip-hop for years, but when the more hardcore artist erupted (from Wu-Tang, Biggie and Snoop Dogg to Eminem, Fiddy, and Dizzy), displacing the more positive-themed music from the chart and public awareness, I found it a hard genre of music to wade through to find material that I still liked. As the years waned on, and the move towards aggressive, gansta and crunk further highlighted the decline of the genre, labels like Quannum, Lex and Peanut Butter Wolf's Stones Throw label became the safehouses to turn my attention for more intelligent/creative fare, but even then the bulk of the material didn't speak to me. But a funny thing has happened, in that it's only with the passage of time that I can start to appreciate the changing face of hip-hop.

I wasn't terribly fond of Vinyl when I first got it, but that's mainly because I didn't realize what it was. It's a DJ album, not a straight out hip-hop album, and with a fond appreciation for DJ Shadow, RJ-D2, Kid Koala and the like over the years, it's only now upon re-listening to this album that I not just understand it, but like it, a lot. Vinyl is like a DJ's mixtape, with a host of different rappers and crews tackling the mic -- Planet Asia, Lootpack, Rasco, Charizma and more -- and an equal number of guest DJs -- Q-Bert, Shortcut, Cut Chemist and more -- providing cuts, and PBW providing beats. Much like I can appreciate Wu-Tang clan years later, the darker edges of the tracks here don't put me off like they used to. I also think my ear for rhythm and loops is also a little more attuned, and I like dissecting the layers of sounds as I listen to it. Really, quite a great re-discovery.

Psychoanalysis [What Is It?] - Prince Paul knows how to make a concept album like nobody else can. This effort and his follow-up works all have a core reasoning to them which all the individual tracks serve. Unfortunately his later works Prince Of Thieves and Politics of the Business are both so incredibly tight in theme that the individuality of the tracks suffer. Here, however, the theme is loose, leaving the album to meander through it bizarre conceit, subtly exploring psychological conditions (as exemplified by each track's subtitle, like "Beautiful Night (Manic Psychopath)" or "Drinks (Escapism)") as they may or may not relate to the industry or the culture it produces. It's through these tracks that Paul, traversing different hip-hop styles and experimental production techniques, looks at issues but through some perverse humour. It's a challenging album, and yet at times hilarious, ingenious and extremely irreverent. It's not necessarily a hip-hop album or a comedy album, but something that sits in its own little avant-garde niche. But, when I'm in the mood, I do enjoy the hell out of it.

In Sides - This album remains very 1996 for me. I remember listening to it, ad nauseum, taking it in, trying to appreciate it's compositional structure, because it wasn't anything like previous Orbital albums, defiantly depriving its audience of danceable tracks and forcing them to sit and listen. I did eventually develop that appreciation for it, specifically tracks 3 and 4, both titled "The Box", coming together as a 12-minute epic. The closing tracks 7 and 8, "Out There Somewhere (Part One)" and "(Part Two)" however still prove kind of ploddingly tedious, combining for over 24 minutes of the album. The remaining 4 tracks each have their own levels to them. The opening "The Girl With The Sun In Her Head" has a slow build in which I love, but the rest of the song is somewhat abrasive. "P.E.T.R.O.L." is probably the most Orbital sounding of the tracks, later featured prominently in the video game soundtrack to WipeOut XL. "Dwr Budr" is creepy and tonal, with low frequencies that eerily seeps into your inner ear while "Adnan" is probably the perkiest track in the bunch, if that's really saying anything. As individual tracks, I would outright dismiss this album, and yet, there's something comforting about it as a whole. Something about it lets me detach from the world around me and put myself into a safe, familiar place. If I were to put on the cans and just close my eyes this album would completely suck me under for its entire 72-minute runtime. It's not the group's best album nor is it a favourite of mine, but there's a little piece of me tucked away within its sounds somewhere that only comes back to me when I listen to it. It's inexplicable. I'm betting I used to put this album on at bed time and fall asleep to it.

Ratings (keep, sell, undecided): all - keep

Peanut Butter Wolf and Planet Asia - "in your area" (a non-video video)


Orbital - "the box" (featuring Oscar winner Tilda Swinton!)



Prince Paul - "Booty Clap" (completely NSFW)