With a myriad of pseudonyms under his belt, Miami-based
Scott Herren is an intriguing bird of prey, scavenging
the remains of electronica, down tempo post-rock and
hip-hop like others drink milk. As it stands, the man
is too big to play around with only one genre at a time,
let alone sticking to the same old crap forever. Drawing
the name for his latest incarnation from his keen interest
in pre-fusion jazz “circa 1973”, Herren has set himself
the rather impressive task of reinventing hip-hop.
Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives is an incredibly
dense record, and Herren’s hip-hop is no classic MC
overflow. As he puts it himself, the human voice is
“just another layer of sound”, and the intention here
is not to convey any kind of political message, but
to work on the correlation between language and music.
For this purpose, Herren uses lyrical performances,
from which he surgically extracts crucial moments, which
he randomly re-injects over syncopated, red-hot beats
and funky electronic deconstructions, sometimes allowing
a slight melody to filter for an instant. And this is
where the strength of the man’s talent is the most impressive.
As he swerves between genres, not favouring one over
the other, Herren creates his own blend of twisted sounds
and structures, and, although some influences are traceable,
the elaborate compositions have their own personality
and style. The addition of vocals is no more anachronic.
Herren’s compositions disturb as much as they challenge
the mind, as he inserts his shreds of samples at strategic
moments, creating a constant feeling of insecurity and
oppression. As the album progresses, and the listener
is under a constant flow of imaginative ideas, pieces
of the puzzle progressively fall into place, with songs
like Radio Attack, Life Death, Point
To B (already featured on the Estrocaro
EP), or Back In Time, demonstrating time and
time again that hip-hop doesn’t need a strong message
to be powerful and intelligent. In fact, it feels here
like it is only when submitted to this kind of treatment
that it actually gets its full impact.
As the MC becomes integrant part of the sound, Scott
Herren rethinks hip-hop, funk and electronic and produces
with Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives, an
impressive album, likely to be a source of inspiration
for musicians for years to come.
5/5 |
