Instrumental hip-hop and I have a rocky relationship, but it's one thatThe Opus is working to mend. Mush has lined up a steady stream of myfavorite releases over the last year, and Breathing Lessonsdefinitely falls into the stack of things I've listened to more thananything else lately. Whispering voices and moody ambient loops lieunder the beats for most of Breathing Lessons giving the recorda kind of hip hop-noir feel not unlike the old Wordsound and Asphodelreleases that first pulled me into the world of instrumental andexperimental hip hop. This record is so solidly constructed that Idon't even mind that it nicks the "Give me love so that I can kill"sample already used to perfection by Meat Beat Manifesto. The guestvocal by Lord 360 on "Isis" is intelligent and tight; cerebral but witha groove, and groove is what makes most of The Opus' work stand out.The beats are constructed from a classical hip hop paradigm with loopedpatterns of fours and eights, breakdowns, instrument drop-outs, and theoccasional beat-juggling that sounds like it must come from a pair ofturntables (even if it doesn't). Instrumental hip hop can often feellike it's waiting for something, or that it's somehow missing the vocalintended to tie it all together, but that's never a problem for trackslike "Whirlwind-Guardian" or "The Strange Adventures of Mr. Happy,"where the music alone is enough to propel the songs forward. A steadydiet of instrumental hip hop will leave just about anyone thinking thatit all sounds the same, and to be fair, a great deal of it isconstructed from the same sliced up not-so-rare grooves and jazz riffs,but The Opus layers compositions with enough spooky atmosphere, musicalslivers, and finely tuned beats to make a record worth seeking out. Read More
