hipothetik disaster - various artists
new french label releasing twisted underground instrumental hip hop beats that for once sound nothing like old dj shadow demos. all of tracks on this introductory compilation feature a weird and dark nature, this is not a soundtrack for a party kind of stuff. having said that, there is some wonderful ideas going on in the paranoid distorted electro loops, and old school synthetik noises. of course, the budget is lo-fi, and, i suspect many of these tracks source from the same machines and/or cracked software, but when they blend in the found voices, or the shards of real world ambience, it can at times be a thrilling end result. highlights are many - but special mention to the cut-n-paste meat beat manifesto funk of vernon lenoir where the sheer mass of sonic sample cuts make the 3 minutes over far too quickly, or the freaky madness of kuma vs yoo-lid, or the impossibly spelt Syrupy track, where found vocal samples make this come on like an old cabaret voltaire experiment in fractured sound and solid beats, and is truly excellent.
obviously, most of the names involved mean little to me, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't track down and sample some of this glorious stuff especially if you enjoy the challenging instrumental hip hop from the likes of anticon and lex records.
the label website has plenty of this compilation up for listen, so, go and discover, and forget about tim westwood sanctioned hip hop, this is far far more interesting.
track listing :
01. Ra - Adx Rebirth
02. The Windbrothers - Wisdom but Rage
03. Ladyatone - BX Style
04. Vernon LeNoir - Tandoori Fist
05. Debmaster - La Bête du Sous-sol
06. Kuma vs Yoo-Klid - Foreign
07. Horten V3 - Aphorysm
08. Syrupy - Unmenuavecfritescocaetsanscornichonsmerci
09. Tanuki - Thats All Folks
10. R.E.D.A. - Methadone Sevrage
11. Thavius Beck - Fear Breaks the Silence
12. Murkbox - Nine Dooms of Hecate
13. [guÿôm] - Poripoux
14. Co - Cocolove
15. Orange Dust - Glitchcraft
16. Yarr - Slasher
17. Ghislain Poirier - Close the News
18. Prester - Far in to Me feat. Amnésie