|
REVIEW:
Overall Rating:
 
Lyrics:
Beats:
Written By:
The Reccollectah
As written in
yesterday’s review: I have the feeling that “Nightmares that
surface…” was just a prelude for Greater Things to come.
Skarekrow and Warcloud must somehow also have noticed that
the input from the other West Coast producers didn’t meet
their musical vision enough and decided to go about it
differently second time around. They let Skarekrow handle
the bigger half of the production and handpicked favorite Wu
instrumentals for Warcloud to rhyme over to fill the rest of
the album. Hence we can hear classic beats from the RZA and
4th Disciple plus a selection from Cilvaringz‘ instrumental
albums. Maybe a surprising tactic to some but this was
indeed the better option as we already know from his
features in the past that Warcloud sounds great over Wu
beats. And indeed, these musical styles worked better
together, making a far better total package.
While on the
first album still searching for the best approach, here
Skarekrow’s beats are the musical equivalent of Warcloud’s
bizarre universe. To achieve this he uses gypsy music (
fiddles, guitars, accordions , ….) ; sharp high-hat rythms
and a véry broad scale of different samples ranging from
“The Untouchables” film, Scooby Doo cartoons , horror and
kung fu flicks samples, pieces of the Marvelettes “Mr
Postman” and one hit wonder Del Shannon’s “Runaway”. Add
some obscure and creepy movie soundtrack bites, sudden cut
off intros that are totally opposite of the rest of the
song, bizarre “fisher price” effects on the vocals or slowed
down vocal intros, church organs solos, drunk-zombie-boogie-woogie-piano
instrumentals, … the works !!! More confident than ever he
goes all out with no boundaries inspiring Warcloud to take
his bizarre verses even a few steps further painting the
most unbelievable scenes all over this album. Good example
here would be “On the high side of the sky”, where Skarekrow
drops an instrumental I’d describe as “Einsturzende
Neubauten and Massive Attack teamed up one evening and went
lofi scifi” , inspiring Warcloud to step into another style,
sounding like a catatonic robot (maybe this was the birth of
the Robot Tank persona?).
This time the
two created a unique masterpiece , a tribute to their
“Baffling House of Horror” as Warcloud somewhere calls it .
This album is the Twilight Zone of HipHop, a never heard
before piece of music that can leave no one untouched while
listening, be it in a good way or a bad way. This is a big
“fuck you” to all easy mainstream chart music which usually
requires no imagination or effort for the listening masses
out there !
As Warcloud
explains himself somewhere :
“We smuggle booze in the graveyard
This is that real hip hop, G
That real hardcore underground shit, G
I'm tired of all that flashy assed pop/rock shit
That shit ain't real hip hop, G
We'll keep it raw for the underground
Smugglin' Booze in the Graveyard“
… a take it or leave it album with a “Fuck whoever don't
like it (quote)” mentality.
But as was to
be expected, finding people who didn’t like this wasn’t
really a problem … au contraire mes amis .
Again lots of Wu fans didn’t get into this at all and
labeled it: “Rubbish” … they couldn’t be more wrong . This
is an album that asks you to have patience and perseverance
to grasp what’s underneath the madness. Once you get used to
the bizarre music and lyrics you’ll really start discovering
the genius served here. Like some Trekkie once said on a
drunk night: “It’s Wu, Jim … but NOT as we know it !”
Final conclusion:
If you checked this in the past and were appalled I’d
suggest giving this another go and hope you’ll eventually
see the light too. Don’t rush it, take your time. If you
never tried the album before, then I can only say that this
is an album everyone should at least have heard once in
full. Let it sink in and then try to dive in too. Patience
is still a virtue and it will lead you into a unique and
addictive universe.
Feel free to (dis)agree.
<Read Other Album Reviews> |
