| From the bizarre lyrics to his concord-speed delivery and the avant-garde use of breaks and samples, everything about Busdriver's Fear of a Black Tangent is wonderfully strange. The title is obviously a parody of the Public Enemy record, but it couldn't be more aptly titled. His raps ramble from talking about being attacked for naming his album thusly, to needing to replace the brakes in his Honda Civic in the tune "Happiness('s Unit of Measurement)." At times Busdriver is like Blackalicious caught in a Dali painting, fighting to get out. He's self-reflective; "Why did I choose to do weird shit? / I steered my career of a cliff in a flaming car" he raps in "Cool Band Buzz." He's witty, as in "Lefty's Lament" where he asks "Why do you hate me? Is it my numerous releases on Ninja Tune / Or my on-going fling with Reese Witherspoon? / Is it because I made my hip-hop cookies and didn't let you lick the spoon." The delivery is usually ultra quick, and because of this it's not like the usual in-your-face rapping style we're accustomed to, but sneaks up and the meaning jumps out when you're least expecting it. The music behind the fast spoken vocals moves from typical indie-styled hip-hop beats to almost drum and bass beats to plinky plonk circus sounds, produced by the likes of Daedelus, Nobody, Prefuse 73 and Danger Mouse; no strangers to the abstract hip-hop themselves. Like the lyrics, they force your brain to fly from tangent to tangent, challenging the listener with changes in tempo and key, with strange samples that conflict then conform to the rest of the tune. A lot of people won't get this. They won't be able to get beyond the too-fast rapping and the crazy music behind the tracks. It is quite possibly too abstract. It took me a few listens to begin to understand and appreciate it. But like a surrealist painting, each time you approach it you'll find something new. This is art, designed not to be consumed all at once, but to be savored over many listenings; and it is well worth investing your time in. - dB Magazine |
1XLP/Out Of Print