God's Weird/Obscure Music Reviews

[God]

Nas ~ Illmatic (1994)
hip-hop

If you could go back in time and tell me a year ago I’d be listening to Nas, I’d probably laugh at you. Everything people hate about rap is here: songs about gang violence, drugs and guns. But to catagorise Nas as simply ‘gangsta rap’ would be missing the point somewhat. Illmatic is far more deep than that. Nas never glorifies these topics, but instead documents his life growing up with violence unavoidably around him in the tough areas of New York, giving a realistic portrayal.

The atmosphere is incredible throughout the album, mainly due to the fantastic production which hip-hop legends Pete Rock, Q-Tip, DJ Premier and others worked on. The sound is low-key, dark and grimy, giving it a very realistic and edgy sound. It is really the production that Illmatic owes it’s success to. There are catchy hooks and melodies, but they never stand out too much, so the album is able to retain it’s moody sound without sounding to ‘poppy’. ‘Illmatic’ sounds remarkably believable, which makes it engrossing right from the beginning, even on the more melodic tracks like ‘One Love’. It creates such a vivid picture you can almost believe you are there yourself.

Even the first track, an introduction to the harsh world Nas is trying to portray with little more than background music, talking and the sound of a train is immediately gripping and drags you straight in.

The album really starts with the second track ‘N.Y. State of Mind’. While rap is usually criticised for being too ‘simple’, here Nas shows how to make minimalism work well. With little more than an ominous simple piano loop and lyrics like ‘I never sleep, ‘cause sleep is the cousin of death’, Nas creates a tense atmosphere that could never be replicated by nearly any complex progressive rock epic.

The album is similar to this the rest of the way through; dark and gritty. The simplicity of the songs never gets monotonous or at all irritating, as they’re all easily short enough to finish before they could drag on at all. It’s almost an album you can relax to, but even with the mellow soul and jazz samples (and a cornet solo, played by Nas’s own father on ‘Life’s a Bi*ch’) it always remains tense and paranoid sounding, as if danger is always close by.

Even the more upbeat parts like the song ‘The World is Yours’ have a certain bleakness to them. In the song the lyrics which mix an optimistic chant of ‘the world is yours’ with the album’s more typical much more bitter lyrics. Sometimes hope does show through in the album though, and at times Nas gives a more positive outlook on life in impoverished New York and focuses on the good times and hope for the future as well as the violence that plagues the area.

Nas’s rapping and lyrics are consistently fantastic throughout. He is easily one of hip-hop’s best lyricists and his raps are both complex and flow perfectly. Once you look past the urban slang, it is clear that the lyrics are of an amazingly high quality. Nas was able to combine deep introspective lyrics with the more violent themes of the album, with his own unique and highly effective style. Many of the songs are highly detailed and engaging first-person narratives which incorporate original and influential rhyme schemes. While intricate and powerful, the lyrics never lose their power.

One criticism of the lyrics is the overuse of profanity, especially the constant use of the ‘n’ word. However, this can be justified as being part of the culture that Nas is from and that he is depicting in the album.

Apart from this, the only real problem with the album is the length of it. At just under 40 minutes it seems far to short and easily could have done with a few extra songs. Luckily, the songs are so addictive it is easy to listen to them time after time, so it’s easy to repeat the album as soon as it’s finished anyway.

Easily a 5 star album
/ 5

Some songs:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

N.Y. State of Mind


The World is Yours


Halftime

[Pra]

I really like how detailed your reviews are. I"m going to check out Pink Flag in a minute. Nice Nas review as well.

[God]

Thanks. I wish I could get some of my black metal-listening friends to listen to Nas, the atmosphere is different, but just as impressive as in most 'atmospheric black metal'.

[RZZZA]

Nice review God, i'm glad to see someone new discover my favorite rap album. Illmatic is indeed amazing, its a perfect album, and that can rarely be said even amongst the most lauded & classic albums in the rap world.

Nas’s rapping and lyrics are consistently fantastic throughout. He is easily one of hip-hop’s best lyricists and his raps are both complex and flow perfectly.

amen


it drops deep, as it does on my breath
i never sleep, cuz sleep is the cousin of death
beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined
i think of crime, when I'm in a N.Y. state of mind

[God]

Dead Can Dance ~ Dead Can Dance (1983)
post-punk/gothic rock

On their self-titled debut, Dead Can Dance had not yet developed their more familiar ethereal medieval and world music inspired sound. As such, it’s a relatively unadventurous start for the band, with them staying very close to their influences. However, there are already signs here of the direction they would later go in and the greatness yet to come.

Although DCD have always rejected being ‘gothic’, there’s little denying that on the debut at least they sound very similar to much of the post-punk and goth popular at the time, specifically Joy Division and early Cocteau Twins. Like these bands, the music here is very dark, moody and not at all uplifting.

Instead of the more ethereal approach they would later take using ancient or obscure instruments, ‘Dead Can Dance’ is densely layered with synths, electric guitar and drum machine, so has a much more ‘rock’ sound than what they’re known for. As usual with the band, the album is split between the two singers, Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard.

Perry’s songs are the more ordinary rock songs and are definitely the weaker half of the album. While after this album his songs would catch up and become the equals to Gerrard’s, here it seems like he’s holding the band back slightly. His songs are still very good, they’re all very catchy and contain the dark atmosphere that DCD would later build on, but they lack the experimentation of Gerrard’s songs. Saying that, songs like ‘A Passage in Time’ and ’Wild in the Woods’ are easily among the best on the album.

The 80’s production with lots of echo effects, heavy bass and thin guitar, while making the whole album sound quite dated, affects Perry more. His voice often sounds muffled and hidden under the instruments, lacking the power it has on later albums. The soon to be released re-release will probably help solve this problem, but we’ll have to wait and see. Perry’s lyric-writing would be improved in their later work, but his metaphorical lyrics are still good here.

Gerrard’s songs are the more adventurous. She incorporates tribal percussion that foreshadows their later world-influenced albums and unlike Perry who uses ordinary rock instruments here, Gerrard experiments with the Chinese yangqin to give her songs a distinctive sound. In ‘Ocean’ she shows the beginnings of the singing style she would later use in her more ethereal style songs.

Most of the time here however, her singing is more grounded and ‘ordinary’ than it would become in later albums. It’s far from unimpressive though. Instead of being light and airy it’s more aggressive and sounds more haunting than it would later on, especially on ‘Ocean’ and the terrifying ‘Frontier’. Even when she’s singing non-existent words (which she does) her singing remains emotive and clearly outshines Perry’s efforts.

Overall, it’s a good but slightly inconsistent album that would probably be better if Lisa Gerrard had sung more than a few songs. It’s still very good though, and definitely worth hearing if you want some dark Joy Divisionesque post-punk.

1/2 / 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Frontier

[God]

Psychotic Waltz ~ Mosquito (1994)
psychedelic/metal

After creating 2 masterpieces of complex and technical progressive metal with ‘A Social Grace’ and ‘Into the Everflow’, many Psychotic Waltz fans were disappointed with their third release, ‘Mosquito’. Although Psychotic Waltz had always had psychedelic influences in their music, leading their unique style to be dubbed ‘hippie metal’ by some fans, it was only here that the progressive influences that overpowered their older work were almost completely abandoned and replaced with far a more noticeable psychedelic sound than before. If Syd Barrett had continued making music after leaving Pink Floyd and made a metal album, it would probably sound like this.

The intricate progressive epics had been replaced with a much simpler sound with traditional song structures, and obvious verse-chorus arrangements. However, despite the more accessible catchy ‘pop’ sound and accusations of Psychotic Waltz selling out, ‘Mosquito’ still sounds fantastic.

‘Mosquito’ is much more mellow than their older albums. Although there were calm sections in ‘Into the Everflow’, this whole album has a very laid back atmosphere - it’s metal that you can relax to. Synths are used a lot more than before and sometimes even a flute to enhance the calm atmosphere. Even the lyrics have been simplified, though they are still much weirder than most, with a psychedelia theme running throughout the album.

This sound is largely due to the strange production, which Scott Burns (who has worked with bands such as Death and Atheist) worked on. The production gives it a down-tempo, doomy sound. While this helps with the more mellow songs, it does hinder a few songs that should be much heavier, making them sound slightly too weak. Saying that, the album opens brilliantly with the title track, the liveliest track on the album with a great riff running throughout. This song really demonstrates the potential of the band’s new simpler sound, taking away the meandering atmospheric sections and concentrating instead on a more concise typical metal style.

The problem is that these more metal songs don’t completely fit with the rest of the album, making it sound slightly disjointed. Mostly it tries to create a relaxed feeling but the title track and ‘Dancing In The Ashes’ come in all of a sudden, sounding out of place when put next to the calmer songs. As only a few of the 11 tracks (including the very pointless hidden track) are like this it doesn’t get in the way too much, but it probably would have sounded a lot better if they had replaced these songs with other mellower tracks instead.

As always with Psychotic Waltz, the musicianship is superb. The band members are easily capable of handling the new simpler songs and managed to adapt to their new style well, writing some excellent and memorable melodies. The biggest weakness of the band this time is surprisingly, after listening to their first 2 albums, their singer, Buddy Lackey. On ‘Mosquito’ his singing is much more restrained and calm than before, not using much for his incredible vocal range. Sometimes his voice sounds drowned out because of the production and on the more metal sections especially his voice sometimes has a nasally tone to it.

While it doesn’t have the dark haunting atmosphere of ‘Into the Everflow’, or the amazing technical musicianship of ‘A Social Grace’, ‘Mosquito’, while slightly inconsistent and arguably their worst release does have a much more accessible sound that even non-metal fans might enjoy.

1/2 / 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Haze One


Lovestone Blind

[bomberboy]

Nice Reviews God. I like the Calexico, Psychotic Waltz, and the Black metal Band you did along with that Acid Folk review too.

[God]

Thanks. My next review will be another Psychotic Waltz one too.

[bomberboy]

Great, is it the first one?

[God]

Indeed it is, and here it is:

Psychotic Waltz ~ A Social Grace (1990)
progressive metal

A Social Grace is Psychotic Waltz’s first and most popular album. Released independently and with hardly any promotion it predictably sank like a stone upon release, despite some very good reviews. However, it has since got a lot of underground attention and gained a lot of popularity (I’m always happy to see it rated as 12th best album of 1990 on rateyourmusic.com… an amazing achievement for such an underrated band).

Psychotic Waltz’s style is unique to say the least, and has been called ‘hippie metal’ by some fans because of the psychedelic influences that they would build on in later albums. Fates Warning’s ‘Awaken the Guardian’ is the best comparison that could be made (though they're not much more popular themselves...), but even then it is not that similar. Apart from that, there is little they can be compared with except perhaps Black Sabbath and occasional Jethro Tull influences.

While their later albums would be more mellow and ‘spacey’, focusing more on atmosphere, ‘A Social Grace’ has a rougher, more thrashy sound to it. Guitarists Brian McAlpin and Dan Rock managed to create some incredible riffs that while very complex and unorthodox remain catchy. While technical music is usually seen as ‘emotionless’, Psychotic Waltz combine their technical skills with amazing songwriting, creating some fantastic melodies that interweave between the metal sections. Sometimes the song will switch between a vicious riff to a stunning acoustic melody completely suddenly, but due to the strong songwriting talent of the band it never sounds at all out of place or disjointed.

This is the biggest strength of early Psychotic Waltz, the mix of amazing technicality and genuinely beautiful mellower sections. The sudden changes and intricate song structures keep the album interesting and unpredictable throughout. As well as the metal sections, there’s a great Jethro Tull-inspired ballad, ‘I Remember’, complete with an incredible flute solo, a synth-led atmospheric track, ‘Sleeping Dogs’ which shows the beginnings of the atmospheric style they would build on in later albums and even a piano on the epic ‘A Psychotic Waltz’. Acoustic guitars also often make appearances throughout the album.

The musicianship of all the members shines on this album. The guitarists are easily able to play the complex arrangements completely accurately, Norm Leggio’s drumming is equally as unpredictable as the music; he is able to cope with the constantly changing styles. Even the bass is spectacular, especially on ‘Spiral Tower’, which is based on one monstrous bass-line.

The singing could put some people off, as Buddy Lackey has a very unique, often quite high-pitched voice. However, it is one of the most impressive things, if not the most impressive thing about this album. Lackey is easily one of metal’s best vocalists, and much of his very best singing is done on this album. His singing range is absolutely incredible, switching from ghostly ethereal wails during the mellow sections to much rougher almost manic shouting in the heavier parts, and everything in between. His lyrics are also much better than those of most metal bands, and are always cryptic and surreal, fitting the music perfectly.

Overall, this is one of the most flawless metal albums ever recorded and it’s a huge shame so few people will ever hear it.

/5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

They don't have my favourites on youtube, but these are good:

I Of the Storm

... And the Devil Cried (sound quality's not too good, but it's OK)

I think I'll review the last Waltz album next, just to finish them off.

EDIT: Videos added for Psychotic Waltz's 'Into the Everflow' on page 1.

[bomberboy]

Nice Review, I never knew I'd get it right.

[God]

haha

Psychotic Waltz ~ Bleeding (1990)
progressive metal/psychedelic

Some fans were unhappy with Psychotic Waltz’s previous release, ‘Mosquito’, which simplified the typical Psychotic Waltz formula by removing the complex progressive arrangements and replacing them with a simpler, more pop-orientated psychedelic sound. Instead of returning to their prog roots with ‘Bleeding’, Psychotic Waltz continue along the lines of ‘Mosquito’, a move that easily could have ended in disaster. However, Psychotic Waltz manage to improve the sound in every way, creating what many see as their best work.

The most noticeable change between this and ‘Mosquito’ is the production. The thin fuzzy production that hindered ‘Mosquito’ has been replaced with a new richer sound that brings back the deep and dreamy atmosphere of ‘Into the Everflow’, though it is not quite as dark this time around.

The fluid guitar riffs contribute immensely to this mysterious dream-like atmosphere. Melodies merge smoothly around each other giving the album a free-floating style. The song-writing is much improved from that of ‘Mosquito’. The melodies are catchier and better written than before, and the riffs more powerful, with more ‘groove’. The guitar solos too are more melodic and impressive. It is clear that Psychotic Waltz have adapted completely to their new style, which they didn’t quite manage to do with ‘Mosquito’.

While ’Mosquito’ felt disjointed as it seemed to be trying to be mellow most of the time but ruined the atmosphere at times by trying to be ‘heavy’, the mix on ‘Bleeding’ is much better. For a metal album it is still very light, though songs are slightly heavier than those on ‘Mosquito’. On’ Bleeding’ it doesn’t sound like the two styles are combating each other like it did before, but instead blend together perfectly, giving the album more variety. Songs like ‘Sleep’ and ‘Bleeding’ contrast the styles brilliantly, while songs like ‘Skeleton’ focus more on the heavier side. There’s also a beautiful Jethro Tull inspired song, ’My Grave’, with acoustic guitar and flute played by vocalist Buddy Lackey.

Buddy Lackey’s singing is very much back on form here. While on ‘Mosquito’ the vocals were often nasally and buried by the down-tempo production, here they soar above the music. The singing is not quite as varied as on the first 2 albums, but the more controlled mellow singing used here is very impressive and fits perfectly with the dreamy music. However, due to his very unique and often high-pitched singing style, the singing could be a bit of an acquired taste for some, even though it is much more ordinary than it was in the early albums.

The lyrics are also simplified a bit more but are still much better than most metal lyrics, showing the amazing lyric-writing skill of Buddy Lackey. As with most Psychotic Waltz, the lyrics have a psychedelic theme.

The musicianship, as always with the band, is superb, with all of the members easily able to play the material completely accurately. Even though the bass is quite prominent in ‘Bleeding’, the absence of their amazing bassist Ward Evans luckily isn’t a problem as he has been replaced by the equally great Phil Cuttino, who managed to create some fantastic bass-lines here.

‘Bleeding’ is exactly what ‘Mosquito’ should have been - everything that made Psychotic Waltz great condensed into shorter, catchier songs and a more accessible melodic sound. Even though it's arguably not quite as strong as the first few albums, anyone new to the band should start here.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Faded


My Grave

Aaaaaaaaaaand that's all the Waltz albums done

[vizi]

Plenty of psychotic waltz....I like

Also some pretty good stuff here. Naked City is amazing. People should listen to them ASAP.

[God]

Electric Masada ~ At the Mountains of Madness (2005)
free jazz/fusion

Electric Masada is an offshoot of saxophonist John Zorn’s group ‘Masada’, which blends traditional Jewish klezmer music with free jazz. Keeping mainly the same members (including the hugely talented guitarist Marc Ribot who has played with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and many others) and two drummers, they combined the experimental free jazz of Masada with noise, rock and metal influences to create some of the most ferocious and exciting free jazz ever recorded.

All of the songs on the album are live recordings taken from a collection of Zorn’s klezmer-based compositions called the ‘Masada Songbook’. With over 200 songs in the songbook it could be criticised for only containing a few and even repeating some of them on the album, but this really shows the huge talent of the band members in improvising - the same song sounds almost completely different each time so you probably wouldn’t even notice you’ve heard it before.

The music here goes from slow spacey jazz to vicious noise and everything in between, often switching between them suddenly. For most of the album it is perhaps best comparable to Miles Davis’ ‘es Brew’ but sounds much more modern. Because of the heavy drumming and electronics the album always has a very rich textured sound. As previously mentioned, a lot of it is improvised but it always works well, keeping the album unpredictable but never meandering pointlessly like a lot of improvised music does.

One of Zorn’s other bands, Naked City, plays grindcore, and this obviously influences some of the heavier parts. One of the songs is actually a Naked City cover. These are usually the weaker points of the album however. There’s one part especially in ‘Metal Tov’ with a horrible piercing whistle that seems to have been placed there just for the sake of it that ruins the whole song. The whole album is so gripping these points are hardly noticeable though.

Even for jazz, the musicianship is impressive. Guitarist Marc Ribot and keyboardist Jamie Saft play some beautiful memorable melodies but are capable of being much more aggressive when needed. John Zorn’s saxophone playing is amazingly varied, ranging from having a smooth and warm tone to frantic high-pitched shrieks. Ikue Mori is in charge of the vague sounding ‘electronics’, meaning that she is adding different random sounds in through her laptop. This actually works quite well, never getting in the way of the music but adding to it by removing the moments of empty spaces.

The rhythm section in particular is incredible. The very complex and precise drumming of Joey Baron and Kenny Wollesen with some fantastic bass-lines from Trevor Dunn drive the album forward, keeping it constantly interesting and hold it together when the other members go off improvising in completely different directions.

As a double album lasting over 2 and a half hours it may be too overwhelming to listen to it all in one go, but it is easily gripping enough to listen to one disk at a time. Recommended not just to jazz fans, but because of the fusion/rock influence, rock fans also.

1/2 / 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Karaim part 1

part 2

[bomberboy]

Good but you've got the name wrong.

[God]

haha oh yeah, I was using that review as a template.

[God]

Exuma ~ Exuma (1970)
folk/world

‘Unique’ is an often overused word in music, but there really is almost nothing Exuma’s self-titled debut can be compared to. The only thing remotely close is the even more bizarre ‘First Utterance’ by psychedelic folk legends Comus. Both albums are bizarre twisted takes on the usually very ordinary folk genre, both have ‘pagan’ lyrics, and both use bongos, but that’s as far as the similarities go.

Exuma is really just the pseudonym of one man, Tony McKay who composed the music, sang and played nearly all of the instruments on the album except the variety of backing vocals. Born in the Caribbean, his homeland had an obvious influence on this album, which has a tribal Afro-Caribbean theme throughout.

‘Exuma’ sounds a bit like the soundtrack to a voodoo ritual put into a slightly more normal folk format. The focus of the music is definitely on the percussion here, with Exuma’s acoustic guitar work taking a back seat most of the time while complex and hypnotic drumming on bongos push the music forward. Whistles, chimes, bells and more unusual traditional Caribbean instruments add brilliantly to the percussion so it is always gripping and unpredictable.

There is also a lot of emphasis placed on Exuma’s singing. His voice is rough but still very powerful. It is best compared to that of Richie Havens, though it is sung in quite a strange bluesy way and with a strong but unobtrusive Caribbean accent. While not quite as unorthodox as the rest of the music, the singing fits the tribal atmosphere perfectly. In fact, the worst song is the only instrumental, which soon gets boring without Exuma’s vocals. Several male and female back-up vocalists are used, but support Exuma with tribal chants instead of regular singing.

Exuma’s lyrics deal with shamanism and voodoo beliefs. The lyrics are exceptionally well written, with stunningly vivid imagery of ancient gods and rituals. While not as grim as those lyrics on Comus’ ‘First Utterance’ which describe murder and rape, ‘Exuma’ can be quite dark. In ‘Séance In The Sixth Fret’ he depicts a séance to summon the dead, and often sings about Satan, especially in ‘Mama Loi, Papa Loi’, one of the album’s darker songs. It can be slightly cheesy, but the atmosphere is so believable it’s not much of a problem.

However, despite it’s weirdness, ‘Exuma’ is far from being a simple gimmick. There is easily enough variety and quality songwriting to keep it memorable and hold up to repeat listens easily. As well as being able to create sinister and sometimes frantic tribal music, Exuma is also capable of the complete opposite, shown in ‘Dambala’, a beautiful folk song with much less percussion and more emphasis on guitar melodies and the great singing and backing vocals. Despite the complete change in sound, the song doesn’t feel disjointed at all, still retaining the same tribal atmosphere, just used in a completely different way.

There aren’t really any faults with the album but it’s far too weird to be appealing to a large audience so can only be recommended to people who want to hear something unique and different in their music. If you do want to hear something completely unique though, you could do a lot worse than giving Exuma a listen.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Exuma, The Obeah Man


Dambala

[Noble Savage]

The Obeah Man is real toe-tapping .

The vocals are very strong and work very well with the beat.

[God]

The Last Emperor ~ Music, Magic, Myth (2003)
hip-hop

‘Music, Magic, Myth’ is the debut album of The Last Emperor, the recording name of Jamal Gray. Gray produces and raps on most of the tracks, with the exception of some guest artists. The Last Emperor makes a nice change from many rappers by being totally modest - he never proclaims how he’s the toughest rapper ever, but instead focuses here on creating a quality mellow alternative hip-hop album.

The completely over-the-top and ridiculous intro shows that the album is not meant to be taken completely seriously, creating a light-hearted and mellow atmosphere. While the entire album remains this laid-back sound and sense of humour throughout, it is very inconsistent musically. The Last Emperor doesn’t seem to know what direction to take his music in. Most of the songs are deep, intelligent and sometimes quite atmospheric rap, but there are much more simple ‘pop’ rap songs that don‘t really fit with the rest of the album.

The more ‘pop’ songs are definitely the weaker tracks here, with sparse beats that aren’t quite catchy enough to remain interesting for long, and end up sounding overly simple. Luckily, the deeper songs are more than good enough to make up for the large amount of filler. These songs are much more experimental with The Last Emperor using all sorts of obscure samples, replacing the sparse beats with a more densely layered sound with at times guitars, flutes, synth and strings. It still remains quite simple, but the different samples keep it far more gripping, and give it far more variety.

The best song on the album is arguably ‘One Life’, which really shows The Last Emperor’s talent in using unorthodox samples to create totally unique and brilliant hip-hop. ‘One Life’ is rapped brilliantly by guest Too Poetic from Gravediggaz, about his fight with cancer. If there was a contest for the most beautiful rap song ever, this would definitely be a strong contender. With a simple acoustic guitar loop, backing vocals, saxophone and violin coupled with Too Poetic’s heartfelt emotional lyrics and vocals, ‘One Life’ is a genuinely heart-wrenching song. Other highlights are ‘Prisoner’ with it’s menacing yet catchy bass-line and rising synths and ’Do You Care’ with a fantastic jazzy piano loop.

The Last Emperor’s rapping is not spectacular, but definitely impressive. The emphasis is definitely on his lyrics. While they are well-written through the entire album, he covers so many topics that at times they end up sounding disjointed like the inconsistent music. At times they’re deep and introspective, and at other they’re just bizarre, especially in ‘Secret Wars’ where he raps about battles between superheroes and his favourite MCs. The lyrics are however humorous throughout and don’t go near the theme of violence explored in a lot of hip-hop.

The biggest problem with ‘Music, Magic, Myth’ though is its length. With the bonus disk included it is over an hour and a half, and over an hour without. With the amount of filler it is a wonder why The Last Emperor didn’t simply remove half of the songs, creating a much more concise and consistent album. As such, it is best to listen to a few specific songs, but not the whole album at once.

At it’s best, the quality of ‘Music, Magic, Myth’ reaches that of groups like A Tribe Called Quest. Unfortunately it is far too inconsistent and has far too much filler to be interesting for it’s entire running time.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

One Life


Prisoner

[bomberboy]

Good reviews but I don't like the rap songs I listened for a couple of seconds and when the lyrics went in I hated it sorry about that but he does sound rather good with samples though.

Oh and I've updated my reviews, New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies and The Kaiser Chiefs Employment.