| Mush Records' releases are nothing if not eclectic. While most of their stuff comes in under the name hip-hop, that's like saying that America has people of a few different ethnicities; there are too many ingredients to name. Free Kamal is no exception. Ostensibly riding the lo-fi indie-rap train, the vocalist/instrumentalist duo made up of Kamal Humphrey (Radioinactive) and Matthew Alsberg (Antimc) seems extremely anxious (just look at their rap names!) to be seen as different from all those other skinny t-shirted kids hopping around on stage. And you know what? They actually are different. Alsberg jumps dizzily from genre to genre in his music-making. "With Light Within" kicks off the record all Caribbean-like, with bells, jammy guitar and sunny female vocals on the chorus. "Movin' Truck" has a groovy bassline and Casio clash electro-tacularly. "Runnin' With Scissors" uses brush-played drums, jazzy piano flourishes and smoky low-pitched singing for a hotel-bar feeling. Strings swell up over the head-bobbing rhythms in "Citrus." Alsberg uses the recognizably hip-hop beats judiciously, often changing up their sounds; remove the vocals, and you probably wouldn't be able to figure out what category most of these songs are supposed to belong to. However, he's not randomly grabbing all of these influences just because he can... much of the music cleverly reinforces the message. "First World Justice System," for example, imports both its dub aesthetic and anti-police-brutality lyrics from Jamaica. Humphrey's flow is a good match for this anything-goes style. He doesn't put on a persona, unless it's that of an intellectual white kid; his delivery is practically unstyled. Instead, he (and/or Alsberg) experiments with effects and overdubs. The lyrics often read like a hipster's pamphlet on self-actualization: "With Light Within" gives us a laundry list of things we should do ("Cook from scratch," "Cut up your credit cards," "Call up your mother") or not do ("Don't be in a clique,"). It kinda makes you wonder about the album title; are these songs an account of the process Humphrey went through to reach his own personal pinnacle of enlightenment? Probably nothing that focused, but he obviously doesn't have a problem with sharing his values and even proselytizing a little bit. Humor keeps the disc from sounding preachy; "The Physics of My Success" spouting of infomercial cliches - especially "I dropped six dress sizes overnight" in a male voice - is hilarious. And ultimately, Free Kamal has a unaffected funniness that makes it so effective. - Splendid |
2XLP/Out Of Print