Sunday, September 5, 2010

#169 DJ Vadim - U.S.S.R. Repertoire (The Theory Of Verticality)

This album found its way onto two lists of instrumental hip hop albums I looked at, and I have to admit I was intrigued by the Russian DJ angle.

There's certainly something raw about this. In the sense that it seems unskilled, underproduced even, which is weird for a style of music that is basically nothing but production. Its slow-paced, uneven, overly simple in places, generally cold. But it also all kind of works in its favor, its lo-fi, in terms of aesthetic, if not in terms of actual audio fidelity (though the occaisional tape hiss actually does buy it something too). It gives itself room to breathe, especially towards the end, peaking around Who The Hell Am I's minimalist soundscape, which evokes The Olivia Tremor Control, or maybe The Beta Band's Monolith. Plus, there's the song titles, with their misordered parts, their cryptic sentiments, their hints of desperation - it gives the album a personal touch, feeling like a journey though the creator's mind in a way I rarely find in this genre.

On some level, its not really very good. But I'm kind of intrigued, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a The Glow pt. 2 kind of grower. I'm sure it will either go up or down, in my mind, from a 3.5/5

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