#144 Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030

Again, from the "underground" best-of lists.

For reference, the rapper is the guy who would later be in Gorillaz (and then, later still, barely be in Gorillaz at all) and the first thing I noticed is that he works better in small doses. His lurching, low-frequency-oscillator approach makes for a great interlude, but going on for an hour or so, it gets old.

There's also something just vaguely off about this album. Something about the way its mixed is stuffy and claustrophobic. Maybe there's not enough variation in the volume because the production is so dense, and Del's lumbering rapping doesn't give you any room to breathe.

Speaking of which, I don't mean to be a rap snob, but the whole thing smells of punch-ins. There's no natural eb and flow to the rapping, it sounds like verses cut and pasted together, even on a fine level. Del raps and raps tirelessly, but it doesn't feel earned somehow. Its like Episode 1, with its characters from different takes talking to each other across composited borders, you can't point out what's wrong with it, on paper everything is in order, but it feels funny, soulless somehow.

That said, weirdly, I started to like the last 40% or so better. The turning point is Meet Cleofis Fandolph The Patriarch, which I think is maybe supposed to be humorously bad, but is an awesome, mad Busdriver-esque lilting rant, which leads into the Damon-featuring Time Keeps on Slipping, which shows why Gorillaz was always meant to be. Then Battlesong, and its slippery rap-as-combat metaphysics, is actually a lot of fun. I think that's the key, the album finally starts having fun with itself instead of being so bleak and heavy-handed about its dystopian distant future. Maybe I was just finally getting the feel for the album, and will like the whole of it better next time? We'll see, for now, those last two acts at least earn it 3/5