Venetian Snares - My So-Called Life (2010)

Review: Venetian Snares - My So-Called Life (2010, Timesig/Planet Mu)

 

Venetian Snares has made a bunch of albums that changed the whole IDM genre upon their releases, but My So-Called Life more closely resembles 2002's VSNARES 237 0894, a scattered collection of mutually irrelevant oddities thrown together as if on a compilation. The chief difference is that My So-Called Life contains entirely choice cuts: "Goodbye9/Hello10" and the emotional closing title track could easily have hailed from 2007's My Downfall, "Ultraviolent Junglist" puts a Detrimentalist spin on Chocolate Wheelchair's hardest tracks and Filth's trance-inspired drum rhythms make numerous subtle appearances. It's as though the breakbeat wizard left a highlight or two off each recent release just to drop them all on one album, but that's not the case - Funk allegedly recorded everything here recently, in focused sessions of one or two days per track. The LP's sheer stylistic variety proves a testament to Venetian Snares' versatility and overrides any immature potty jokes, which serve as middle fingers for those who can't get past them enough to instead dwell on his talent. For instance, hilarious highlights "Who Wants Cake?" and "Welfare Wednesday" showcase sped-up rave samples respectively singing "I feel so mentally retarded" and "Anal intercourse in your punani" as refrains ("Chef Boyardee," "Mike Paradinas" and "Selling crystal meth" also make Aaron's obscene list of peculiar punani happenings), and autobiographical satire "Aaron2" sounds at once more lighthearded and sinister than its melancholic, Autechre-indebted predecessor, telling the story of malevolent third parties taking the composer's happiness in exchange for his first drum. Silly humor aside, the greatest songs easily make Funk's best-of canon, and the rest is enjoyable at worst - compilation or not, My So-Called Life is a hell of a lot of fun, and at a point in his career where he's literally done everything, it's exactly the kind of recording Funk needed to make.

Bump this: Posers and Camera Phones, Welfare Wednesday, My So-Called Life

Raekwon Ft. Ghostface Killah - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. 2 (2009)

Review: Raekwon Ft. Ghostface Killah - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. 2 (2009, Ice H2O/EMI)

With his powerful production on "House of Flying Daggers," J Dilla sets the symphonic stage for  Linx 2's remainder: a series of flavorful, Yancey-inspired bangers sequenced in short, rapid progression á la Jay Dee beat tape for maximum impact. At first listen the long-awaited sequel seems tremendously overwhelming, even difficult to attentively complete in a single sitting; the sheer energy and personality each track grants the opus makes it so dense you willingly get lost in the morphing soundscapes and Raekwon's potent drug tales, going through the whole LP before realizing what hit you. Cuban Linx 2 plays quite differently than its predecessor - Rae's largely eliminated the constant skits, tastefully sprinkled non-Clan guests over the instrumentals and only included a couple RZA beats. Unexpectedly, the plentiful engineers are a great boon; sound veterans Marley Marl, Dr. Dre and Jay Dee, among others, bring carefully selected sonic bombs to the project. For all its dexterity and variety, Raekwon's sophomore drop remains impressively focused on his claim to fame and proves the best crack album since his title-holding debut - they don't call him The Chef for nothing. On the Dilla-sampling Broken Safety, surprising guest Jadakiss spits "Fuck saving hip-hop, we bringing the streets back." If anything, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. 2 should remind everyone hip-hop is just fine.

As for 2010's Gold Edition, check out "Rockstars" and leave the guest-spotting remixes on iTunes.

Bump this: House of Flying Daggers, Baggin' Crack, 10 Bricks

Gucci Mane - Jewelry Selection (2010)

Review: Gucci Mane - Jewelry Selection with DJ Holiday (2010, Mixtape)

Man, it's been a cold summer. Following July's fantastic Mr. Zone 6, Jewelry Selection allegedly serves as a prequel to Gucci Mane's upcoming studio album, the alleged sequel to 2009's The State vs. Radric Davis. Hopefully Gucc passes some of the new tape's elements on to The Appeal in September - a short and selective guest roster, booming trap beats and competent mixing. In fact, Jewelry Selection's blemishes are mainly the host's; aside from coating the LP in annoyingly loud drops, Holiday headscratchingly includes Mr. Zone 6's lone, braindead misstep "Makin' Love to the Money" alongside silly, infectious Appeal single "Gucci Time" and rewinds enough to increase the album's length by a good 5 minutes. Despite these unsurprising Aphiliates shenanigans, there's plenty of originality here - "Gross" finds Gucci disgusted with his arctic surroundings behind ad-libbed vomiting sounds while the brilliant horrortrap of "Poltergeist" and "Vampires" (which manages to put a dozen clever spins on the motif) is sure to slay sub-par (or sub-lacking) car stereos. If his recent activity is any indication, Gucci's already made his appeal - all he's gonna do in September is wink at the jury. Burr!

Bump this: Trap Talk, Gross, Vampires