Categories : Music Reviews, Rap + Hip-Hop, Top Rated.
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Rating: 4.5 / 5 Reviewer: Garth Paulson |
It’s not often in today’s reunion obsessed musical landscape that the results of getting the band back together are better than the first time around. Today, people seem to be content with their old favourites getting back together for a string of sloppy, nostalgic shows. If they happen to take the reunion further than that into recording new music, all that’s really hoped for is that they don’t embarrass themselves. No one really expects any of the myriad of groups giving it another kick at the can to outdo themselves, but that’s exactly what progressive hip hop group Anti-Pop Consortium have done with, Fluorescent Black, their first album together since they called it quits in 2002.
The album occupies similar territory as previous Anti-Pop works. The beats are almost entirely futuristic, IDM-inspired soundscapes overflowing with subtle textures and ample headphone candy, but drums still pack a head-bobbing wallop. The rhymes from Beans, High Priest and M. Sayyid are rapid-fire tongue twisters with a highly cerebral bent that find time for memorable hooks.
Not much has really changed during their time away, but everything about Fluorescent Black just holds together better than anything the band has done before. There’s a coherency and consistency here that was sometimes missing from the group’s earlier work.
Anti-Pop Consortium haven’t changed their sound much in their time away and their name is still a misleadingly poor choice that only harms the way people approach their music, but Fluorescent Black finds them rejuvenated and at their most inspired. Though Hip hop is slowly catching up to the sounds Anti-Pop was making nearly a decade ago, the album is still years ahead of its time. More importantly, it’s the best illustration of the group’s plentiful talents to date, which is a whole lot more than you could reasonably hope for from yet another reunion.
