| It’s Free But It’s Not Cheap is the solo debut from Antimc, a Los Angeles-based producer. The white dude rockin’ a throwback Ramones concert style t-shirt in the accompanying press sure doesn’t look like your typical hip-hop producer, and he doesn’t sound like it either. Antimc brings influences from all sorts of genres and uses elements from those combined with slick - and very ambitious - beats to mold the nine songs that comprise the album. When you have guys like the unbelievable Canadian MC Cadence Weapon, Epitaph’s Busdriver (who has a new full-length coming early in 2007), Andrew Broder of Fog and Mark Mitchell of Clue To Kalo appearing on your songs, then you know Antimc is on the cusp of something special and people within the industry are taking notice. What I love most about Antimc is that while he is a hip-hop producer, he doesn’t let that label restrict him from dabbling in other genres and leaving the world of hip-hop behind for extended periods of time, even entire songs. All of that is evident in album opening “Ten Days Out.” Fasten your seat belt as Antimc takes you on a nearly seven-minute ride of hip-hop fused with a groovin’ rock vibe. Pay particular attention to the guitar work, because it is fuckin’ sicke. (Is that a warped version of the music they used to play in the bonus stage of Sonic and Hedgehog when you and Tails collected mad coins? I really think it is.) Six of the nine tracks feature guest vocalists and walk the gauntlet from reggae-infused hip-hop, straight hip-hop, what I would call borderline punk rock and even a total alternative indie-pop song. Like I said earlier, Antimc completely ignores boundaries that others often adhere to and the listeners enjoy the spoils. The most surprising of the bunch has to be “The Nogoodnick,” which features Fog singing about “a nomadic addict” who is well beyond down on his luck. It’s far closer to a lost Neutral Milk Hotel song than it is to something that you’d expect to find here. You are hearing chimes, bells and xylophones, and almost no bass to speak of. This is a great song that leaves me wondering just how this collaboration came to be, and whether we’ll see more songs like this in Antimc’s future. Anthony Anzalone of the Mean Reds handles the vocals on the aforementioned “punk” tune, “Cesspool City.” The word raw is thrown around a lot when it comes to music, more specifically in regards to hip-hop and punk. Half the time you have a crystal clean beat with a rapper who has a raspy voice and you end up having people touting how raw it is. These people need to hear “Cesspool City” to get an understanding what raw music actually sounds like. Anzalone’s vocal style and the killer combative beat that Antimc paired with it literally sound like the musical equivalent to a brutally gruesome beatdown. Check out a sample of these disturbing lyrics: “All the shit I see/Cesspool city/All the shit I see/Cesspool City/All dicks are lined up hard and ready to fuck/Tell that there whore to piss on your chest/Tell the fuckin’ whore to piss on your chest.” See what I mean? It’s absolutely visceral. It’s on the instrumental tracks where Antimc gets a forum where he really has a chance to shine. “What Were So Afraid Of?” reminds me a bit of a topsy-turvy DJ Danger Mouse’s work with the Gorillaz, where the emphasis is on happiness as opposed to gloom. There are even elements of happycore dance in the background. The scattered use of varying styles of drum machines is a cool touch. “This is my whore report/You are the spoils/We are the victors/We like vicars/In charge of you vics/My job implies I take advantage (doesn’t it?)/I’m a fast talker/ I’m an active savage/It ain’t so bad but it ain’t all good/rappers talk shit but they ain’t all hood.” I couldn’t possibly end this review without talking about the incomparable Cadence Weapon -- featured on “Canadian Dream” -- with the above sample of his lyrics, which rival anybody going right now . I’ve resigned myself to knowing that I can’t break the rules and put Breaking Kayfabe or any individual songs off Cadence’s album on the year-end list, so I am happy to say that Antimc has given me a loophole to give props to one of my greatest discoveries of 2006. The beats were great on Cadence’s album, but what Antimc has concocted here would challenge any of the joints off Breaking Kayfabe. If these two ever made an album together it could be magic. The whimsical words “Or I may just dream … my life away … Or I may just dream … my life away,” are distantly repeated by Clue to Kalo as the album closes in a very fitting climax to the robust trip that is It’s Free But It’s Not Cheap. Antimc gave me nothing I ever would have expected and everything I could have wanted at the same time. It’s one of the more musically eclectic experiences I have ever had. - Two Way Monologues |
1XLP/Out Of Print