Album Review: Anti-Pop Consortium - Fluorescent Black (2009)

Label: Big Dada
Release Date: 29 September 2009
Genre(s): Rap, Hip-Hop

1 Lay Me Down
2 New Jack Exterminator
3 Reflections
4 Shine
5 C Thru U
6 Volcano
7 Timpani
8 Solution
9 Get Lite
10 NY to Tokyo
11 SuperUnfrontable
12 Born Electric
13 Apparently
14 End Game
15 Capricorn One
16 Dragonov
17 Fluorescent Black

This record could've been the record of 2009 if glitch, wonky, laser and all that jazz haven't existed up until today plus if the most forward thinking hip-hop still sounds like something coming out from Def Jux's camp. 7 years after their breakup since 2002's Arrythmia, Beans, High Priest, M Sayyid & Earl Blaize reunited again to craft something wonderful that is Fluorescent Black. Even though time has already catches up to these forward-thinking new-yorkers, they're ostensibly still looking ahead, but with a bit of retro-futuristic tinge. Resident beat-genius Earl Blaize still plays with plenty of abstraction like the minimal march of 'Timpani', the arpeggiated & digitized sludge of 'Dragunov' and adapting to updated stylings like the delayed ravestep synths & halfstep beat with missing snares on 'C Thru U' while the rest of the production seems crowded and busy, much departure from the negative vibe & hollow spaces found in Arrhythmia.

On the vocal front, Beans, M Sayyid & High Priest attacks the mic strategically, rarely overflowing with words, although they still on the same formula by cramping everything on any Dan Brown paperback to ride with the beats, only this time it works for them considering how they can stay on point for like, the whole album.

Perhaps the group is making up for lost time, as the album feels overstuffed & draggy at points. The finger-plucking guitar riffs on 'The Solution' & the computer soul of 'Born Electric', complete with the talkbox vocals, hopefully came across as a joke-- an overindulge on their robotic fetishes. It's good to see that Antipop return hungry, but it's going to be hard for them to raise the bar that they had set in this record. Fans of Antipop and listeners who just crave something creative and hard-hitting really ought to give Fluorescent Black a few spins.

Words by Skware-1