Vocal Studies And Uprock Narratives

Take my advice on this one; anyone who is idiotic enough to give this album less than 5 stars is out of their mind! This is one of the most beautifully constructed cut up abstract hip-hop break albums I have ever heard, and I don't think there could be any other album that could match it EVER (except for Nightmares on Wax - Carboot Soul, also a gem).

The man behind Prefuse 73 (Scott Herren) opens this album with the lushous 'radio attack' which sets the mood for the mouthwatering tracks that follow. 'Smile in your face' is an absolute scorcher of a track...probably my personal favourite, but every track is a classic. 'eve of destruction'- which is kinda similar to the 'Boards of Canada' style is another cracker. I could go on and on about how immense each track is.

Put it this way, I couldn't find a better album to listen to during the drab summer days in Scotland. Why don't you have a listen for yourself and make up your own mind.

With a myriad of pseudonyms under his belt, Miami-based Scott Herren is an intriguing bird of prey, scavenging the remains of electronica, down tempo post-rock and hip-hop like others drink milk. As it stands, the man is too big to play around with only one genre at a time, let alone sticking to the same old crap forever. Drawing the name for his latest incarnation from his keen interest in pre-fusion jazz "circa 1973", Herren has set himself the rather impressive task of reinventing hip-hop. Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives is an incredibly dense record, and Herren's hip-hop is no classic MC overflow. As he puts it himself, the human voice is "just another layer of sound", and the intention here is not to convey any kind of political message, but to work on the correlation between language and music. For this purpose, Herren uses lyrical performances, from which he surgically extracts crucial moments, which he randomly re-injects over syncopated, red-hot beats and funky electronic deconstructions, sometimes allowing a slight melody to filter for an instant. And this is where the strength of the man's talent is the most impressive. As he swerves between genres, not favouring one over the other, Herren creates his own blend of twisted sounds and structures, and, although some influences are traceable, the elaborate compositions have their own personality and style. The addition of vocals is no more anachronic. Herren's compositions disturb as much as they challenge the mind, as he inserts his shreds of samples at strategic moments, creating a constant feeling of insecurity and oppression. As the album progresses, and the listener is under a constant flow of imaginative ideas, pieces of the puzzle progressively fall into place, with songs like Radio Attack, Life/Death, Point To B (already featured on the Estrocaro EP), or Back In Time, demonstrating time and time again that hip-hop doesn't need a strong message to be powerful and intelligent. In fact, it feels here like it is only when submitted to this kind of treatment that it actually gets its full impact. As the MC becomes integrant part of the sound, Scott Herren rethinks hip-hop, funk and electronic and produces an impressive album, likely to be a source of inspiration for musicians for years to come.

Warp, to most people is just an odd , unique and out of normal rail electronic music. But just Melankolic has Day one and Mowax has South, Warp has got a exceptional Warp thing cool hip hop band (prefuse 73). very hip-hop, very cool music with prefuse 73. Life Death, Nuno is my favourite track. Cool vocal and cool beats. 5 minutes away is a cool hip-hop beat background with chill out melodies and instrumental piece of music. So have a drink and have a sip of listen. Cool in summer of this tunes and the whole album. PS: The artwork is exceptionally cool too. but what's the relationship of a man with bike and the vocal study? Bike to have a vocal study? anyway.