non-prophets - hope
a sage francis and joe beats collaboration that according to the notes has been in the making for quite a few years. luckliy for lex records they have got it sorted and allowed these tracks to see the light of day. with a cover that depicts a man on an anchor a la jesus on the cross surrounded by some very dark gothic looking swirls this is no party vibed album.
for that starter pack : sage is a member of leftfield hiphop collective anticon. subsequently i had no idea how this was going to sound, given that the anticon sound seems to range from they might be giants all the way to brian eno type ambience.
well this is straight up hip-hop. that avoids all current gangsta cliche and yet still comes over as a seriously listenable album.
creative beatz/loops/samples all set against wonderfully inventive lyrical flow that reveals itself more with each listen. joe beats has crafted one of the most refreshing set of tracks and is consistently rewarding to the listener .. especially when given the headphone treatment. none more so than on the second track 'any port' with its catchy melody line, deep bassline, but when the loops are minimised and a storm is left to brew and the bassline keeps its presence to a barely audible level and then it all kick in again .. superb. the same bassline is then flowed into next track 'damage' but this time sage is in a fiery mood and words are full of anger and vitriol. these 3 opening tracks make for a stunning start.
'i'm not leftwing or right wing but the middle .. finger'.
'that aint right' strips things right down to a basic beat, hammond organ, and bassline. all getting very minimal ... but not in the word count, with sage declaring anger at the whole homophobia inherant in the world of hiphop, anger at the internet, anger at all sorts .. damn this sage has some issues and he's on a roll getting them off his chest... the rest of the lp spins on, and sage continues to be the grumpy man of hip-hop, trust me there aren't many happy vibes flowing from the words, but for some reason i found myself digging this a lot more than just about any other hip-hop album that i have heard this year (admittedly not that many as i have had little desire to hear eminems/dre's/neptunes latest proteges).
could joe beats be the man to seriously look out for .. old school never sounded so bang up to date. this stuff is not following in the timbaland future funk style but consists of sampled loops and dj skillz - just hear 'fresh' for a complete timewarp feel, a big band jazzlicks have been broken down and processed to sound like nothing else. excellent. fucking excellent.honest, as is just about every track on the lp. but dont expect much of a happy vibe lift, except for the brief interlude of 'a mill' projecting just how great it could be to get a million dollars. a few more albums as strong as this and this will definitely be within their reach, but after tracks like 'new word order' where they project that just about the whole music industry, every record label, every mofo 'aint got no style' then they sure aren't bothered about schmoozing the big playas, interesting attitude. good luck to em.
oh, and for the record there is not one r-n-b crossover hit to break the makers into the radioplay mainstream, hurray. tis a real thing going on here.