Anti-Pop Consortium
The Ends Against the Middle EP
[Warp; 2001]
Rating: 7.4
Ex-Pitchfork writer James Wisdom done a bad deed with his review of
Anti-Pop Consortium's first album. Tragic Epilogue a 6.5? It's not
some underground classic, but their mix of sharp rhythms and relentless rhymes
made for a tight debut, even if it left a cold, chemical aftertaste. I'm not
coming all "saviors of hip-hop"-- Wisdom had a point: too many loops made for
monotonous grooves, and their dense wordflow tried too hard to intimidate.
Overly bleak maybe, but not surprising; hell, Anti-Popper Beans even cites
Bauhaus and Section 25 as influences. But along with Mike Ladd's Parliament-ary
Afterfuture and the Infesticons' Gun Hill Road, Tragic Epilogue
was one of those mindtrip albums of 2000 that could send you to a heaven at least
somewhere in the 7.0s.
So hopefully we can give props to the Consortium while avoiding some internecine
staffer warfare. Anti-Pop's on Warp now, and for a second you might think the
label's looking to duplicate the success of Cannibal Ox. "Tuff Gong" fires off
rattling tin can percussion and a raw, bombastic bassline reminiscent of everything
on The Cold Vein. M. Sayid spits some typical insults at first, but then
the song cuts to this organic double-bass skronk and he doubletimes, tongue
almost audibly flapping. He balances precariously, nearly losing it, but ends
on point with, "You pulled out a nine/ I turned into a green light and ran over
your mind."
"Tuff Gong" is clearly an intro track, and "Splinter" follows seamlessly with
some duke-duke-duke of earl-style vocals and a nice, understated keyboard melody.
Beans' warm voice begins, "Fillin' em with penicillin and Benadryl/ Drillin' a
fillin' and spillin' my feelings." His delivery's always smooth but I'm struck
by the excitement-- nobody's detached like the last joint. Likewise, M. Sayid
snarls eagerly, "I got crowds movin' like U.N. flags." Somebody's got to fall
off though, and here, it's High Priest. You can pinpoint right when his freestyle
degenerates into a bastardized Kool-Keith grocery-list recitation, the kind of
flat flow that heads always hate in "progressive" hip-hop.
But Priest redeems-- regular Anti-Pop producer Earl Blaize steps back to the
engineer role for this EP, and each of the three MCs get a chance to shine on
their own tracks. Priest proves the skills that got him on Mille Plateaux's
click-hop comps. He crafts "39303" from random beeps and babbling samples,
mixing it all together suddenly as Beans launches into an abstract monologue.
It cuts off too quickly, probably the only problem with this EP: most tracks
just seem sketches. But Priest's next piece, "Pit," distracts attention once
again with an instrumental full of divebombing pitchshifts that squeak like
Kraftwerkian birds of paradise. Beans' "Dystopian Disco Force" and M. Sayid's
"Perpendicular" go the more mainstream route. The latter develops into a DJ
Muggs-style trip-hop ditty, and the former is straight-up funk, organ runs and
wah-wah guitars included.
Were there any instrumentals at all on Tragic Epilogue? Must have slept
through them, if so. But this EP just constantly keeps your head bobbing.
They've extended the challenges of vocal freestyle to the music, and the
improvised weirdness avoids the dull loops Epilogue fell into. "Vector"
ends with another vocal track and the upbeat meter is perfect (likewise the
buoyant, humming Moog). The Consortium seems to have learned that Anti-Pop
doesn't equal mind-numbing, machine-like music. I'm just hoping the experimental
tip transfers to their new album in 2002. The Ends Against the Middle is
only a 17-minute EP, but unlike their fast-forward-guy logo, when this finishes,
I'm ready to rewind.
-Christopher Dare, December 20th, 2001