sole - plutonium remix 12"
6 track ep, first 3 are the full remix's and last 3 are pure instrumentals, with involvement from anticon fmaily members such as alias and odd nosdam.
opening with plutonium remix - placing mad fast raps against an eerie spooky backing, incorporating a scary/unnerving ambience wrapped around the jumping beat and a huge epic phased guitar sound that fills the sonic soundscape brilliantly. and not forgetting the rapid change of style at 3 mins to throw in a stylistic curveball to keep you on your toes.
is hip-hop meant to be this disorientating ? yes. yes. yes.
stunning stuff.
next comes 'selling live water (dead water remix)'. within the opening few seconds the line "never took lessons from some hip-hop nazi's" kicking the listener out of their ikea sanctioned comfort zone, obviously there is some serious stuff buried within the scattershot beats and rhymes that will hopefully reveal themselves with each subsequent listen. but, compelling with its scratched vocal loop from some chorus declaring some allegiance to usa.
deep and very dark.
consolidated have trodden this path previously but they sacrificed the songs for the preaching, so far, sole has yet to fall prey to this misleading direction, and therefore keeps the intention well defined within its far reaching boundaries.
thus creating 5 mins that could change your preconceptions of hiphop.
final proper track 'the surface' opens with future techno bleeps. then a massive distorted industrial d-n-b fused beat kicks and keeps kicking the listener into an unwilling submission. overwhich sole adds his vocal weight and continues to avoid all rap materialistic cliches , and instead seems to be dragging the rap lyrics into some uncharted territories, before dropping the track into commercial hell.
damn, these 3 tracks make for exhausting listening.
the instrumentals add little of course, but once again highlight the sheer breadth of the anticon sound, put this against the recent why? ep and you'll be hardpressed to find any other collection of people creating such high quality variety.