Them
Anticon 2003
01. I
02. Directions to My Special Place
03. Joyful Toy of a 1001 Faces
04. Revenge of the Fern
05. Eating Homework
06. Lyrical Cougel [ft. Sole & The Pedestrian]
07. Grass Skirt & Fruit Hat
08. The Crayon Sharpener
09. John Brown's Vaporizer [ft. Mr. Dibbs]
10. Another Part of the Clown's Brain
11. Death of a Thespian
12. It's Them
13. Hidden Track
14. Program to Hunt 2007 [ft. Slug] [Bonus]
15. Epic [Instr.] [Bonus]
Upon discussions with my (skeptical) Dutch friend, I figured it would be worthwhile to start a little series of 'regurgitations' - my own minimal attempt at re-evaluating and reflecting past musical obsessions, depth affects, etc. This will be all hopefully done in a non-narcissistic, but actually useful and uber-amazing way, cause I'm just that very awesome. May the couch-jumping happiness commence: I'm still excited over these as I was back when they first came out. But enough with the I's for now.
Here we are in the presence of our first regurgitation - a monument and whatnot of caustic, bizarroid hiphop, sporting dark packaging that would get easily mixed in anyone's metal/hard rock collection. Equipped with an even more intriguing inside booklet (worth a good look - sorry for not having time to scan it) which shows the two authors of the record, proud graduates of their respective colleges, in rather picturesque celebratory costumes. One can imagine 'them' quickly egressing from their premises: Jel in front of an SP-1200 - Dose-One behind a microphone, balancing lyrics at his unrestrained, unmethodical intervals... Are these the usual trials and tribulations of two schoolboys in the boring and barbarian America? What are they trying to say?! Noone will ever know for sure - so overwhelming is the misdirection and obscurity. Delirious perhaps, yet so damned intelectual, poetic - stream of consciousness, dramatic monologues, fluttering syllables, ultra-varied intonations. Stereotypes are put at evil by some cracking verbal jokes, while the rest deals with anything from crayon sharpeners, eaten homework, clowns, envelope pushing, to "clickedy clacks", monkeys in captivity, worrying toys, and incredibly much more. It's a wild ride. "It's not what, but how you say it" - case in point. Before they got their name switched to "Themselves", "Them" stood (obviously) for insane scientists invading hiphop with their sick and menacing productions. Between you and me, a better alchemy between beatmaker and MC was rarely caught on any other disc/tape. Let's give the last word to Dose-One himself: "I'm afraid we'll have to innovate..." Ten years gone and they still can't touch you.
>> rapid / mfire (86mb)Here we are in the presence of our first regurgitation - a monument and whatnot of caustic, bizarroid hiphop, sporting dark packaging that would get easily mixed in anyone's metal/hard rock collection. Equipped with an even more intriguing inside booklet (worth a good look - sorry for not having time to scan it) which shows the two authors of the record, proud graduates of their respective colleges, in rather picturesque celebratory costumes. One can imagine 'them' quickly egressing from their premises: Jel in front of an SP-1200 - Dose-One behind a microphone, balancing lyrics at his unrestrained, unmethodical intervals... Are these the usual trials and tribulations of two schoolboys in the boring and barbarian America? What are they trying to say?! Noone will ever know for sure - so overwhelming is the misdirection and obscurity. Delirious perhaps, yet so damned intelectual, poetic - stream of consciousness, dramatic monologues, fluttering syllables, ultra-varied intonations. Stereotypes are put at evil by some cracking verbal jokes, while the rest deals with anything from crayon sharpeners, eaten homework, clowns, envelope pushing, to "clickedy clacks", monkeys in captivity, worrying toys, and incredibly much more. It's a wild ride. "It's not what, but how you say it" - case in point. Before they got their name switched to "Themselves", "Them" stood (obviously) for insane scientists invading hiphop with their sick and menacing productions. Between you and me, a better alchemy between beatmaker and MC was rarely caught on any other disc/tape. Let's give the last word to Dose-One himself: "I'm afraid we'll have to innovate..." Ten years gone and they still can't touch you.
>> love it, buy it (Anticon)
2 comments:
This retrospective regurg' idea is a Good Idea. Don't let anybody make you second-guess yourself! nobody second-guesses us better than we ourselves. So gag on, master chef! I like hearing what serious listeners think about the way jamz have aged twixt their ears.
hey thanks for the support :)
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