Saturday, February 17, 2007

New El-P - "I'll Sleep When You're Dead"



El-P (Jaime Meline) has been a long time coming with the follow up to his 2003 classic "Fantastic Damage", and when I heard his new lp "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" featured cameos aplenty from the likes of The Mars Volta (boo) and Cat Power I thought it was a sign he had succumbed to the hip-hop tradition of having guest stars on every track which would have been a shame for someone as unconventional as he. Luckily, this proved not to be the case, and in truth, the supporting players are barely noticeable and are incorporated seamlessly into the mix. When I heard the new record, although it was a promo copy and I had to endure hearing "this promo belongs to Matthew Snider" every few minutes, I was glad to hear that El-P hadn't deviated too far from his previous album; "Dead" has the same syrupy but dense and atmospheric production but is perhaps slightly more listener-friendly than before, which isn't a bad thing, as "Fantastic Damage", brilliant album though it is, took me a while to get in to. I've posted the tremendous opener "Tasmanian Pain Coaster", which bears all his usual hallmarks i.e. tinny lo-fi beats and lightning quick rhyming, and is one of the record's highlights, of which there are many.

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