for people who can't read

I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead | El-P
Definitive Jux | March 20th

Review by Scotland

Website
Definitive Jux
Buy

Sounds like … Hip-Hop without the marketing team

Aside from Hell Hath No Fury by The Clipse, some Dilla re-releases, and perhaps Security Screenings by Prefuse 73, the overall concentration of Hip-Hop in the 2006 release mix seemed to have been heavily diluted by a slurry of mediocrity. Fortunately for the heads out there, it seems that the tipping point has been reached in 2007, heralding the return of dense, intelligent, powerful Hip-Hop in the guise of the new El-P record, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (ISWYD).

From the seven-minute opening track it’s clear that ISWYD is going to be an intense ride, musically and lyrically deep, and breathtakingly ambitious. A Twin Peaks reference sets the tone for the rest of the album - a Lynch-inspired haunting realism lurking just below the façade of city living. With urgent guitar work by the Mars Volta and the desperate refrain “the whole design got my mind cryin’ and if I’m lyin’ I’m dyin’, shit” the track TPC, like the album it introduces, marches definitively to its own immensely powerful broken beat.

El-Producto took five years to craft this album, time well spent considering how listenable such a musically complex record is. Elements of experimental jazz find their way into the mix (Smithereens) and syncopated snare loops provide the sonic backdrop for venomous rebukes like “I might have been born yesterday Sir, but I stayed up all night” (Up All Night). The funk-inflected minimalism of EMG merges into the rock-fusion of Drive, with El-P’s darkly opaque rhymes covering war, drugs, secular religion, and fear of flying amongst other things.

By the time Cat Power helps flip the meaning of the album’s title from menacing threat to bitter rebuke on Poisonville Kids No Wins, the damage has been done. Make no mistake about it, Hip-Hop needed this album, and so do you.

9 out of 10

Strange Form Of Life | Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Domino | March 19th

Review by Jigantor

Website
Domino Records
Buy

Sounds like … Nick Drake in the frail body of a mortal.

Will Oldham is hurt. Will Oldham is gentle. Will Oldham observes, and loves.

Will Oldham's voice cracks. He knows the notes, he's straining to get there, but he can't quite manage it. He's playing a broken guitar by the fire, as the rain comes down outside your hut. You don't know how you got here, and you don't care, you just know that you never want to leave. He looks like a biker when he lets his beard grow; he looks like a lost boy when he doesn't. He is singing his gentle songs that he's written for you. They are bare, free of distractions, just the music and words joining together in beauty. He is beautiful. He is captivating. He is perfect.

Thank god, this is not emo music. This is not the overproduced Emotion™ that EMI tries to sell you. This is music in its most pure form. This is music that goes straight for the heart and you can't help but respond. If you think that James Blunt is heartfelt, it may take you a few listens to appreciate this record. But do it. You will never look back.

8 out of 10