Quasimoto

All Music Guide:

Quasimoto is the utterly bizarre alter ego of production wizard/MC Madlib (born Otis Jackson, Jr.), one of the leading underground producers on the West Coast hip-hop scene. Madlib got his start with the Oxnard, California-based Lootpack, which recorded an acclaimed album, Soundpieces: Da Antidote, for Peanut Butter Wolf's Stones Throw label in 1999. At Peanut Butter Wolf's urging, the initially reluctant Madlib subsequently began to concentrate on his Quasimoto side project, with which he'd been experimenting since 1996. Quasimoto's music had a decidedly different flavor: free-associative raps sped up during the recording process to sound like their creator had been inhaling helium, backed by liquid-flowing jazz loops and a heavy stoner atmosphere. Madlib debuted the Quasimoto voice on Peanut Butter Wolf's My Vinyl Weighs a Ton in 1999, and also used it sparingly on the Lootpack album. The first Quasimoto single, Hittin' Hooks, appeared later in 1999, and the Microphone Mathematics 12" began to make Madlib's mysterious "protégé" an underground favorite. A second 12," Come on Feet, was released in 2000, and the first Quasimoto full-length, The Unseen, followed on its heels. The Unseen was greeted with generally glowing reviews (and some confusion as well), earning comparisons to legendary hip-hop eccentrics like Prince Paul and Kool Keith; some critics went so far as to call it a left-field masterpiece. An instrumental version of the album followed later, and as its reputation continued to spread, he returned in 2002 with the three-song, vinyl-only EP Astronaut. The Further Adventures of Lord Quas, the second full Quasimoto record, appeared in 2005 on Stones Throw. Yessir Whatever, a collection of rare tracks and unreleased material from the project, arrived in 2013.

Wikipedia:

Quasimoto (also known as Lord Quas) is the animated alter ego or side project of hip hop producer Madlib, from Oxnard, California. Quas is known for the raised pitch of his voice as if he was inhaling helium. Another notable characteristic is Quas inter-changing with Madlib's voice. One day in the studio, Madlib decided to rap to his own beats. He didn't like the sound of his voice (his friends in Oxnard call him 'Barry White' in reference to his deep voice) so he decided to slow his recorder down, rap slowly, then speed the recording back up to produce Quasimoto's distinctive high pitched voice.

History[edit]

Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ and owner of Stones Throw Records, heard Quas' demo tapes and encouraged Madlib to release more tracks under this alias. Quasimoto was featured on Wolf's My Vinyl Weighs a Ton album in 1998, on the song "Styles Crews Flows Beats." Finally, Madlib put out Quasimoto's debut album - The Unseen - in 2000. This album received much praise from underground heads and from mainstream media, making it onto Spin Magazine's top albums of the year list.

After the release of The Unseen, Madlib spent the next few years working on radically different projects such as Yesterdays New Quintet and his album Shades of Blue. Quas re-emerged in 2003, making a few guest appearances, notably on Jaylib's Champion Sound and Madvillain's Madvillainy (Madlib and MF DOOM). Quasimoto officially returned with the vinyl-only Bus Ride EP in late 2004, continuing his recipe for success – keeping content simple (weed, rap, etc.) and using crazy samples. Quasimoto dropped The Further Adventures of Lord Quas in 2005. M.E.D. and MF DOOM are featured on the album. The album cover features a reference to Frank Zappa's debut album, Freak Out!, a picture of super-producer J Dilla, and a picture of Wild Man Fischer, who is also referenced in one of the songs. The voice of Melvin Van Peebles is sampled on several tracks from both albums.

Early depictions of Quasimoto were taken from the movie Fantastic Planet, specifically the leashed Oms who wore red masks with protruding snouts resembling skinny hippopotamus during the first "de-om".

In an interview, Madlib said that the atmosphere and sound on the Quasimoto albums owe much to the work of Alain Goraguer on the soundtrack of La Planete Sauvage and early Quasimoto video features excerpts from it. The song "Come On Feet" contains a sample from the soundtrack to that film.

Quasimoto released his third studio album entitled Yessir Whatever in June 2013, which is a compilation album. It collects 12-tracks made by Madlib and Quasimoto over a roughly 12-year period. A few were released on rare & out-of-print vinyl, while a few others are previously unreleased, now mixed and mastered for the first time. Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).