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April 08, 2005
prefuse 73 :: surrounded by silence
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Even though he gets plenty of notice, I feel like Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73) is overlooked by a large group of people. His music is typically categorized as "instrumental hip-hop", which undoubtedly turns off the "I listen to everything except rap and country" crowd. Even though he does have the occasional guest MC on his tunes, the fact is that his music is a very engaging, listenable, and yet constantly innovative form of electronica that only shares the basic foundation of its beats with traditional hip-hop.
His particular talent is for making rhythmic information out of airy tonal and harmonic content. This is done by chopping instrumental passages that are often made up of strings, woodwinds, or voices playing tense, suspended chords or jazz harmonies into bits that play off of and syncopate with familiar breakbeats as anchors. Other instrumentation skitters across or reverses through the sound field, making for tracks that support multiple listens with revealing layers. Often there's a suggestion that the chopped sounds would be essentially ambient if they were put back together and stripped of beats.
The main criticism that can be leveled at Prefuse 73 as of now, with his 4th full-length release, is that his sound hasn't evolved sufficiently - and this has been the thrust of a set of generally lukewarm, B/B+ reviews of this disc in the press. As if he recognized the danger in advance, he chose to find new territory by working with collaborators, from electronic whizzes like The Books and Pedro to vocalists like Claudia Deheza of On!Air!Library! to new, more challenging guest MCs such as Wu-Tangers Ghostface, GZA, and Masta Killa, as well as El-P himself. The results are mixed.
The tracks that feature the most imposing collaborators tend to fracture the flow of the disc, and it's better when it settles in for long stretches of what Prefuse does best, or when he's working with a simpatico electronicist like Pedro. There is no question that his album is more liable to sag than any of his previous work. I especially find the Ghostface/El-P collab, cast as the feature track, to be almost impossible to parse and unconvincing (El-P usually trades in obscurantism, and Ghostface in mania, but this sounds tossed off). In the end, I'm somewhat surprised to generally prefer the tracks on Surrounded by Silence that sound most familiar.
While I agree that the basic Prefuse approach may be wearing out soon, I still find his music almost endlessly listenable. but to be consistent with my comments on other records I must point out that at 21 tracks (many of them interludes), this is quite draining to absorb in one sitting.
Dedicated Prefuse followers may make different judgements than curious new listeners; if you're new to the scene, I'd encourage you give these examples a spin regardless of your reaction to so-called "hip-hop". Then travel through the Prefuse catalog at your leisure, knowing that there's plenty more and better where this came from.
Expressing Views is Obviously Illegal (mp3)
Gratis (Prefuse vs. Pedro) (mp3)
Posted by borrowed_tunes at April 8, 2005 06:21 AM
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