When hip-hop producers put out instrumental-only albums, you get a real sense of what they’re capable of. Some of Madlib’s instrumental albums are arguably his best produced records. Hip-hop producers face an additional set of challenges when making an instrumental album, essentially having to make up for the loss of the vocal companion. In other words, instrumental hip-hop has to be twice as good to be intriguing.
Then you have someone like K-The-I??? who goes far above and beyond any interpretation of what defines a hip-hop producer. Listening to a K-The-I??? instrumental album is a no holds barred of every electronic sub-genre pounding your eardrums while you sit motionless trying to grasp it. Here’s a piece of advice: stop trying. Even the most esteemed of beat scientists can’t comprehend what all goes into making tracks like those found on Oxidised Matrix V2. It is a miracle of modern musical mayhem and can’t be explained with our limited vocabulary. However, here we are, and I must try.
It’s not often that you find a hip-hop producer willing to venture into the techno world; it's quite a ballsy move. Yet somehow, K-The-I??? does it without flinching. In “Prevail,” one minute you’re head-bobbing to a half-time beat glittered with buzzes and glitches; the next, you’re in some abandoned warehouse covered in glow paint--it happened so fast you don’t know what hit you. That’s what Oxidised Matrix V2 feels like throughout--eighteen minutes of one inexplicable wormhole venture to the next. “Silly Cinderella” literally takes you through gangsta rap, to nightclub bass thumps, to dreamy synth sweeps, to funky jungle beats, and finally lands in some new kind of chaos I haven’t the knowledge to explain. The entire EP is one massive outburst of confusion like this after the next.
If this sounds awesome to you, then let me assure you, it absolutely is. K-The-I??? must have inadvertently created at least ten new genres in this four-song excursion, and that’s an understatement. It’s definitely not the easiest thing you've ever listened to. It can be downright difficult at times, but if you can brave the monster of Oxidised from start to finish, you’ll find that it was well worth it in the end. Good luck trying to explain it to someone else though. - In Your Speakers |
