Theme for a Broken Soul

by

DJ Rels

Edit

Words almost can't describe what the album accomplishes to me. This one was easily one of the most underrated masterpieces of the decade. From its fantastic cover, to the infinite sprawls of percussion and manipulated soundpieces, each aspect suggests elegance, and power...a sort of mecca for electronically influenced transcendence. Rumors have it, the samples for the album were complied from some of the records he found in brazil while shooting the excellent brasilintime documentary. Madlib released this one w. little commotion. Even for a stones throw album that came out after madvillainy, it came w/ little (or any) hype to it. Some couldn't tell the DJ Rels alias was infact the abstractoperfecto schizo himself.

The album for me seems to pay tribute to the percussion based drones that different musical genres have been influenced by over the years, and revamps them to a totally new level of mixing alotta original and postmodern sounding concepts. The few artists that experimented with sample based percussion and sound manipulation to this level, but still kept a heavy hiphop, jazz, and funk feel were those who were affiliated with the brokenbeat term. While im pretty sure some artists in the field have used samples of different percussive-based genres to develop their music, none seem to incoporate the feeling more than in this album. Each track is expressed quite differently through blasts of bongos, shakers, congos being timestreched or used polyrhythmically over what could mistaken as organically induced synths which are actually manipulated timestretched samples themselves riddled with an excellent ear for texture. Its Bombastic, moods change w/ each turn...sample interludes of all varietys (acapallea chant's suggesting music as a means to cure illness or weak emotions, heavy turntable-influenced sequencing, obscure commercials, etc.), evoking emotions of hysteria, live action, dancing, etc. Madlib is topgun when it comes to pinpointing the atmosphere of any aspect of his music. Every track feels like its own world and nothing ever feels plastic. Nothing repeats itself without having a full inducing, hyponotic quality to it. The feel of it seems to work very well in different settings, it cross a bridge between a meditative and seductive beat-driven soundscape as well as an active, adrenaline-induced spree...all which sprout decadence and a consciousness that electronic music sometimes falter's with sacrificing intentions to keep a good dance floor track.

This album is a nice example of a bridge between the funk and the flavor, with the ambition and attitude most hiphop characters are lacking of, its wonder what lies behind the dome of a madlibber. He seems to accept the unforgiving, overwhelming premise that is artist vs the industry today...those who are running the big show need to feel this unforgiving world...an intense emotional experience such as music should be left untainted by such brute, unnautral ascepts the industry wants to bring to the table. The importance of music is being felt more and more today than ever...most of these hip hop stars nowadays with their material-inducted mentalities, brought on by faults and follys of those who should have known better in the first place, could very well just be repeating history somehow...

if im not one of the few that totally disregards the culture that the modern day society is bringing upon us, i advise you to look at all the spectrums of the world in the past that influenced humanity the most positively and let it influence all the positivity you still have in this dying world. What do you seek, acceptance or decadence, fear or bravery, the light and the darkness, THERE IS WAR PEOPLE...

...and to think, one of the only things keeping this world together is rhythm and sound. This album is a clear dedication of the transcendental qualities music has had on himself and others.

DJ Rels is another Madlib moniker. This time, he's doing the "broken beat" thing (whatever that means). To my ears, there are many genre and sub-genre names for what is essentially electronic dance music. It's hard to keep track and differentiate one "style" from the other. But I digress.

This collection is instrumental and features 'Lib's trademark drum chopping and unusual sampling. This time, it's on some tripped-out disco-ish groove. Despite the sometimes jarring juxtaposition of the drum sounds over the loops, the songs are surprisingly organic (for the most part). Being unfamiliar with the broken beat scene, I've relied on others to assess Madlib's faithfulness to the style. For the most part, they say he's done an admirable job.

Please realize that this is not Quasimoto, nor is it Lootpack, nor is it YNQ. People may hear that it's Madlib and purchase it based on the caliber of his other work. This is its own thing; you will not be hearing "Angles Without Edges Part 2" or "More Shades of Blue." If you like his music (particularly his instrumental tracks) and have already been indoctrinated into his musical approaches, you'll enjoy this. If you're new to his music, try "Shades of Blue" or "Madvillain" instead.

One final note: If you purchase this item, try to do so through his record label's prefered retailers. They offer a promo-only companion mix from Madlib himself. He has deep, deep crates: It's almost entirely disco/dance music and, much to my surprise, it's really great. When you consider both discs (the original album and the disco mix) together, it makes for a fantastic listen.