Beans - Shock City Maverick
Beans
Shock City Maverick
Warp Records 2004
Produced by David Brinkworth, Mark Pritchard
Vocals: Beans
Bass: Chicky
Fred Ones: Scratching
Sax: Joseph Yoon
Cello: Molly Schnick
and various others.
I first heard Beans as part of the dadist hip-hop outfit Antipop Consortium, and I eventually picked up the Now Soon Someday EP (really, it was pretty much an album). I was notably impressed, as this was the first new MC in a while whose lyrics were downright mindboggling in their density of both wide vocab and surrealist imagery. The sound was sharp, clean and electro-pop accessible, without being like anything else on the airwaves (which may be why this wasn't on the airwaves).
Now Shock City Maverick is a true full length follow up, and it is mostly very satisfying, with a few pedestrian tracks occasionally breaking the pace of brilliance this release keeps. The sheer tongue twisting verbage makes for even amusing reading, but when it's heard behind a backdrop of digital bump discipline, they become too-cool polemics and lexical LSD.
And in terms of sonic backdrop, this album is slick and ferocious. Stalking basslines and off-kilter flashes of various influences from fusion, avant-funk and electronica pepper each track. It even sports a catchy soundtrack for inducing urban claustrophobic panic called You're Dead, Let's Disco.
Some key tracks include Shards of Glass, Death by Sophistication and Diamond Halo Grenade
Shock City Maverick
Warp Records 2004
Produced by David Brinkworth, Mark Pritchard
Vocals: Beans
Bass: Chicky
Fred Ones: Scratching
Sax: Joseph Yoon
Cello: Molly Schnick
and various others.
I first heard Beans as part of the dadist hip-hop outfit Antipop Consortium, and I eventually picked up the Now Soon Someday EP (really, it was pretty much an album). I was notably impressed, as this was the first new MC in a while whose lyrics were downright mindboggling in their density of both wide vocab and surrealist imagery. The sound was sharp, clean and electro-pop accessible, without being like anything else on the airwaves (which may be why this wasn't on the airwaves).
Now Shock City Maverick is a true full length follow up, and it is mostly very satisfying, with a few pedestrian tracks occasionally breaking the pace of brilliance this release keeps. The sheer tongue twisting verbage makes for even amusing reading, but when it's heard behind a backdrop of digital bump discipline, they become too-cool polemics and lexical LSD.
And in terms of sonic backdrop, this album is slick and ferocious. Stalking basslines and off-kilter flashes of various influences from fusion, avant-funk and electronica pepper each track. It even sports a catchy soundtrack for inducing urban claustrophobic panic called You're Dead, Let's Disco.
Some key tracks include Shards of Glass, Death by Sophistication and Diamond Halo Grenade
posted by theloniusfunk at 5:20 PM
1 Comments:
this comment may be a lil bit off like 6 months but beans rock :)
i was adding a song of him to my mp3blog and was searching for some info when i hit your review .. .
http://www.undomondo.com if you wanna check :)
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