Funeral For A Spendor

According to the Stasi-like methods with which I observe your activity, the last person to come to this site through an external link came from the website of an early music ensemble I reviewed in two sentences 8.5 years ago.  That's kind of fun, isn't it?  They were a good act, too, so far as I recall, and I'm glad to see they're still going.  Go to http://www.wildruby.co.uk/skeletoncrew and repay the favour.

DEATH OF HI-FI – ANTHROPOCENE (BG Records)

Death Of Hi Fi.  Whether we’re meant to make this connection or not, it’s a fitting name for a hip hop act.  As more and more music is listened to on mobiles and tinny laptop speakers, many producers are mastering their tracks to work best when shared on someone’s phone in a bus queue, not spun on 1200s attached to a fat sound system, and it’s the post-hip hop diaspora that’s leading the game, changing the sound of the genre from the bottom up.  The hallowed boom-bap has been replaced by the airy piff-paff.  Whether this is a harmless step in the evolution of music distribution or a sonic tragedy is a doctorate yet to be written, but it’s certainly interesting in this instance, as this album is lush, deep and layered, yet doesn’t tend to rely on a booming kick drum or a blue smoke bass fug. 

The concept behind the record is that various aliens have interpreted earth culture based on snatches they had picked up on radio waves.  To be honest, after the international collage of voices that makes up “Hello From The Children Of Earth”, that brings to mind OMD’s speaking clock sampling “Time Zones”, this conceit is unlikely to remain at the forefront of your mind, but on a simpler level, interpretation is paramount here, as DOHF have drafted in a wide selection of vocalists to augment their tracks.  These range from prevalent local names like Half Decent and Asher Dust, to proper coups, like Dizzy Dustin from California’s Ugly Duckling.  Dustin’s track “Bullspit” (no relation to the Shaodow single) is possibly the pick of a very impressive album, throwing some excellent rhymes and a ridiculously infectious hook over a lolloping left hand piano line that isn’t a million miles away from a soulful take on Talk Talk’s “Life’s What You Make It”.  It’s an example amongst many on Anthropocene of raps with real character – whether or not anyone can imagine dial-twiddling ETs on this record, there’s no shortage of mic-troubling MCs, with a variety of accents and angles, which makes a change from the identikit bars we hear so often on hip hop albums, in Oxfordshire or beyond.

The downside is that this record dips when the vocalists take a backseat.  There’s nothing at all wrong with the instrumental cuts, but they sound as though they’re backing tracks in need of a strong vocal.   At least there’s plenty of variation, from the epic “Entering Orbit (Intro)” to the cheeky chiptune scuffle of “Anthropocene (1UP Overture)”.  Like so many good hip hop producers, DOHF are at their best letting subtle tweaks and touches bring out the flavours of their MCs, rather than composing instrumentals with their own cohesive narrative: it’s the Prince Of Persia synthline on “Manamals” or the mid-80s Tangerine Dream chug of “Until I Stop Dreaming” that we love, rather than the slightly over-egged pomp of the title track (plus there are the ghosts of some cheesy Highlander guitar wails haunting a few dank corners).  So, perhaps the record is a touch overlong, but it is still deeply impressive, and comes highly recommended.  Anyway, what does it matter?  Who the hell listens to whole albums nowadays, anyway?  No time, bruv, the bus should be here in a minute.