Stones Throw Records
The Unseen used a dizzyingly diverse amalgam of sounds to create its distinct universe; Further Adventurestakes it up a notch. 1980s funk and soul synths, the requisite killerjazz loops so obscure that Madlib probably owns the only extant copy,Bollywood chants and a marvelous collection of "found-sounds":melodramatic snippets from horror flicks and hilariously cheesy 1960sinformational records on "grass" and its effects that nearly make therecord worthwhile all by themselves. Critically speaking, Madlib is"another one of those people" who uses other peoples' music to make hisown. However, his aptitude as a sampler and a remixer makes him able tocreate such creatively distinct brand new music out of the sourcematerial that such detractions sound absurd. On "Bus Ride," his duetingwith an old Melvin Van Peebles routines is as soul-wrenching anddramatic than anything Peebles or Curtis Mayfield (or even StevieWonder!) ever did, and his accompanying back-and-forth verse set a"Strange Piano" makes the snippet his own. The Further Adventures of Lord Quascomes as no surprise to Madlib's followers, whether they came on boardduring the Lootpack era or were Madvillian-era latecomers. To thislongtime Quasimoto crew groupie, The Unseen is better simplybecause of its novelty. Nothing like Quasimoto quite existed in thehip-hop world then, and the same is true today. New listeners, ifopen-minded enough, will delight in finding themselves in the badcharacter's world for the first time.samples:
Read More
