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- Date Released: February 12, 2008
- Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B
- Style: Hip-Hop
- Label: Definitive Jux / The Orchard
Rob Sonic heads this indie-leaning hip-hop and heavy, psych-tinged live-band funk/rock fusion.
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We Say...
Before he signed with Definitive Jux and dropped his lauded 2004 solo debut Telicatessen, rap artist Rob Sonic was the frontman of Sonic Sum — a group that fused indie-leaning hip-hop and heavy, psych-tinged live-band funk/rock in a way that brought out the best in both categories. Sonic Sum didn’t receive quite as much attention as they could have in their prime, and part of that owes to the fact that their second and finest album, 2004’s Films, was at first a Japan-only release; it didn’t see wider distribution until Def Jux reissued it in early 2008.
Anyone who swears by solo Rob Sonic records, like Telicatessen or 2007’s Sabotage Gigante, should feel right at home here. Films shares those records’ sinister cleverness, building verses from free-associations and music from fuzzed out electronics, glassy piano and snarling guitar. Sonic’s lyrics are both tricky to follow and easy to obsess over; expressions switch directions and meanings mid-phrase, while the snarling conviction in his voice hints at a subtext that might take several listens to unearth. While Rob splits production duties between himself, Fred Ones and multi-instrumentalist Erik M.O., the album has a unified feel, one that ably balances malice, melancholy and straight-up headknock beats. It’s a dark record, but not a bleak one. -
They Say...
This album from Bronx rapper Rob Sonic and his crew of producer friends -- Fred Ones, Eric M.O., and Preservation -- came out in Japan a few years before the label troubles that stopped it from being available elsewhere could be overcome. Eventually Definitive Jux gave it a wider release, presumably based on the high quality of the previous solo Rob Sonic album, Sabotage Gigante. On that album he showed that he'd learned to talk plainly when he needed to, but this flashback reminds listeners of what he was like at his most abstract. If these songs were films, they would be the kind you argue about with your friends after watching them. In the denser verses, like the opener of "Rocket," the lines tumble out of the speakers at you like blocks in a game of Tetris, and assembling them into some kind of coherence before the next lines fly at you is a near-impossible feat of linguistic nimbleness. The only response is to let them wash over you, the sneered words raining down in cascades of vagueness that slowly build up until they either accrue meaning or don't, depending on the song and the individual. Take this example from "Marathon": "An after-hours saint in an unhonorable discharge/Counterpoint it stands still/The color-hungry mandrill/Trying to hang glide with a pocket full of anvils." Sometimes an overdose of signal can sound just like noise and sometimes it really is just noise. The moody music is an effective counterpoint to all that wordplay, the echoes and pianos in "Negatives," the squelches and tinkles in "Circuit Breaker," and the ominously menacing bass and Vangelis strings in "Novelty Model A." Still, this is very much an acquired taste.
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| 01. |  |
Oscillator |
2:26 |
|
| 02. | |
Moth |
4:07 |
|
| 03. | |
Choking Victim |
4:35 |
|
| 04. | |
Films |
4:52 |
|
| 05. | |
Marathoner |
4:13 |
|
| 06. | |
Negatives |
2:32 |
|
| 07. | |
Novelty Model A |
3:50 |
|
| 08. | |
Rocket |
3:41 |
|
| 09. | |
Chopper 1 Slow |
3:49 |
|
| 10. | |
Medicine Man Motto |
3:53 |
|
| 11. | |
Circuit Breaker |
3:07 |
|
| 12. | |
Ordinary Mower |
5:32 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 46:37 Total Length
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Credits
- R. Hamilton Smith - Producer // Fred Ones - Producer // Fred Ones - Engineer // Fred Ones - Mixing // Fred Ones - Cut // Dan Ezra Lang - Art Direction // Dan Ezra Lang - Design // Ken Heitmuller - Mastering // Jaleel Bunton - Guitar
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