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What is it with hardcore hiphop and album titles eh? Artists either create titles which take longer to read than the duration of the music to which they refer or they are painfully unsuitable. I’m not sure about the decision by Atoms Family leader and CPR CEO Cryptic-one to use the term “Euphony” to describe brooding abstract rap over dark tangles of metallic beats and grainy samples seeing how the term refers to pleasing harmonies and not rhythm. But hey! Don’t judge an album by it’s title because this intriguing compilation maintains a very high standard throughout. The album’s Production duties, shared between Blockhead, Cryptic and Jest reflects the latter’s interest with drum & bass.Whilst most of the album’s aesthetic produces stark obstreperous Tracks, they are no where as abrasive as work by say, Antipop Consortium. Nevertheless, such formidible beats as these demand emcees of considerable presence to master them. Furthermore, Rap is a very exuberant artform and it is the perfect way to vent urban outrage and pent up frustrations but it’s not so good at representing nor exploring angst. With this in mind, I found the album’s first full track, Hanger 18’s Prison very disappointing. They may be two of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing but as the circumlecuitous duo of Alaska and WindNbreeze struggle to make themselves heard over Jest’s scaving electronic noises, their “’ism/’ision/’isen” rhyme-driven lyrics convey claustrophobia and spiritual emaciation more by accident than intention. In sharp contrast, as fractured fragments of sound slowly rain down around the regal insouciance of Vast Aire,The Jest-produced His Majesty's Laughter sounds like The Canibal Ox emcee has stumbled into the starring role for the best cartoon Hannah Barbera never made.. Euphony is not simply a vehicle for the atoms Family. The compilation also features several seriously monster collaborations and posse cuts featuring their extended family and friends. The Atoms family once again collaborate with Ohio’s Weightless camp for an abstract squadron cut which lacks any clear topic and so is…long…really long.. Following a sample from a Gie Richie film breaking down the meaning of the term “Nemesis,” Aesop Rock, Vast Aire and We Be Foolish’s Yeshua DapoED definitely come Sinister (in spite of the bland instrumental) when this see evil, hear evil, speak evil trio speak on paranoia, loyalty and survival. Aesop Rock kicks off with ”We’re all in the same gang, bread and butter / it’s just a couple sub-divisions who naturally hate each other / influence is shark-biting the fuck out of your brother / friendship is Professor Plumb ratting on Colonel Mustard!” and Vast rounds out the track with lyrics including “see in this lifetime I’m a caged poet, but I think life is more than a jail sentense / that’s why I took my time, doing callisthenics with euphemisms, to hand out a life sentence.” Here Vast yet again uses his expressive voice to amplify the potency of the homonyms used in such identical rhymes. Whilst no specific lines from the emcee appearing in between these two Def Jux artists jump out as quotable, Yeshua’s verse appears to find him having committed a dirty deed and trying to figure out who he can depend upon to help him get away with it. The best of these extended-family tracks is Cynical Bastards where Cryptic hooks up an addictive blend of sampled and synth string swoops for grimy emcees LoDeck, and Despot. Sure, a collabo between two relatively unknown emcees can’t really claim to be “monster.” But trust, if it wasn’t for the inviolable glass-ceiling (often reinforced from both sides) separating the underground from the mainstream like some viewing chamber at the shark pool in Sea World, people would be all over Lo Deck like he was the reincarnation of Biggie. As the duo spit the intimidating open shots [Lo Deck] “ My glamourous life, ulcers and terrified softies at open mics!” [Despot] “I’m living proof that the smallest figures can cast vast shadows!” the only problem with the track is the absence of any real chorus – it all sounds a bit random as the pair take it in turns to shout “I’m a cynical bastard! [insert name] Underground hiphop! [insert name]” In addition to all these impressive team-ups over albeit adequate instrumentals, there’s a handful of dope group and solo cuts bosting the album’s strongest production. Lo Deck returns with Stethoscope Alley, lacing a thunderous piano rumble with his own brand of modern day blues. Greenhouse Effect’s Woke up this morning finds Blueprint proving himself as impressive on the mic as he is cooking up this theatrical piano instrumental. Whereas Blueprint explains how music is his medecine to keep him from going “postal” loco, music does anything but brighten Cryptic’s cynical outlook. Indeed, there’s a palpable sense of pesimism and spiritual exhaustion when he rides the crushing self-produced El-P-esq instrumental for Half Life to build upon the symbolic lexicon of both Cannibal Ox and Aesop Rock with umpteen more ways to say “I’m fed up.” . The best solo cut, and the centrepiece of the album however, is the mindblowing Water. The deceptively simple instrumental starts with a loop of a medieval hymn and then, as this pre-Definitive Jux Aesop Rock opens the sluice-gates to release another torrant of ideas, the progressive instrumental continuously swells and grows in gradual shifts.
Aesop Rock gets a third bite of the cherry with a remix of Coma from Labor days but almost any track is an anticlimax following Water. That said, the “Coma” remix is a good place to start with the album’s negatives. It is not fair to place all the blame for prison’s failiure on Hanger 18’s shoulders because this drum & bass at a sub-hiphop tempo production is more hit than miss. Indeed, the album’s most successful tracks like Water, and Stethoscope Alley come closer to living up to the album’s title than the majority of the album’s noisy tracks.
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Various Artists Euphony LP