0 IP HOP ROUND UP " ' ' LEFTFIEL H PICTISH TRAIL

Disaffected white college kids taking on black music then finding a HOt Trail

sense of community through new modes of communication is nothing ....

new. Anticon is just doing what the beats did with jazz but now it‘s JAMES _ . closer and more honest. Weirdly, there are those who still wonder xas‘rsHTEON VARIOUS whether the schizophrenic time signatures and political poetics of ATHLETES —, . p . M Nevermmd _ artists like Doseone, Why? and Sole are just aberrations in the history Lang Cat‘ Crooked Gllucmouso IS 20 of a black musical form. They clearly don‘t know their history, which is Cat. Spider Cat .. ,. ... something you can’t accuse Sole of. Live From Rome (anticon) .0. z . v ., ....

may slip into a whinge occasionally but on “locust farm‘ Sole finds inspiration in the spirit of artists like Woody Guthrie. Like many of his cohorts he's a folkie at heart but in a good way, engaging with the real America while remaining reflective, indignant and dignified.

Indeed, the rhymes of Sage Francis, who put out his 2002 Personal Journals on anticon, are everywhere imbued with the spirit of a pre- Dylan folk troubador on Healthy Distrust (Epitaph) O... . His collaboration with Will Oldham, ‘The Sea Lion‘, is as funny, mysterious and elusive in the way you always wished the knowing Beck wished he could be. How Sage reacts to the impending stardom will be interesting. Pedestrian’s album Unlndian Songs (anticon) 0... does what Sage’s former label mates do best. It constantly surprises, making loud, sarcastic boots of derision before returning to lyrical introspection. If you want to know what the label does best, namely . grafting a sophisticated vision of American history onto the history of : :' ' :' 2 its latest urban form of expression. ‘Arrest the President' is as straight ' :v ' ' ' talking as Consolidated at their best, and ‘Blind Dates‘ is far-out ' ' z' 2 Pharcyde. With Absence (lpecac) 0.. Dalek show what a Pandora's Box anticon has opened. New Jersey based, they’re from a successive generation and their tune ‘Ever Somber’ is the best one-off from this whole bunch a continual flow of rhymes weaving in and out of My Bloody Valentine guitars. A whole album, mind, is a bit much. As is their label boss Mike Patton‘s album General Patton vs the X- ecutioners, (lpecac) 0.. which is essentially a cut marathon that features the ex-Faith No More front man singing in his faintly cock rock way over three tunes out of 23. (Tim Abrahams)

Sage Francis

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