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Scott Da Ros :: "Dilshad And Tohti By A Frozen Lake"From One Kind Of Dead End (Endemik; 2006)
Being an indie rap figure in Eastern Canada is a social experiment in human resources management. The big wave of the mid-to-late '90s saw Buck 65 go on to sustain moderate stardom and force Warner to reissue a slew of four-track recorded albums spectacularly littered with copyright liabilities. Colleague Sixtoo became one of underground hip hop’s most respected sound-crafters, and Checklover Coco Boomslang (hope I got that right) eventually landed a permanent spot on Trailer Park Boys. Dudes like Recyclone and Knowself, however -- from the same Hali class, guesting on a lotta records made by the Sebutone two, especially -- are probably making their first appearance in your headspace right now in that name-drop two lines above. Neither is less nuts than the other three, and both can write rewind-worthy verses on political neuroses and conspiracy theories and crop circles and William Cooper, but I would be passing out free money to say that either had the transparent charisma of Buck 65 or the guttural resolve of Sixtoo. I’m not sure how you get a spot as a lackey on Trailer Park Boys, but I’m pretty sure Recyclone and Knowself didn’t do that, either.
Bewilderingly talented Montreal-via-Halifax producer Scott Da Ros has a decision to make: more posse cuts and posse albums with his posse of talented-but-“it”less MC’s, or hole up for as long as it takes to make the giant hideous chimera monster of a record that’s currently trying to eat through his spleen and spit bile in our faces. His latest record, One Kind of Dead End, contains gorgeously violent -- but never industrial -- difficult Dark Magus beats that sound like what DJ Vadim would have done if he moved to Chernobyl after making Repertoire and his MPC mutated into a Dalek. These beats generally hide under Blowed-styled paranoid smart-rap by dudes like the notable Bleubird, and the less-notable but always solid Ghettosocks, Dave Pal, and Apt. Funny thing though, there’s a Sole guest spot on the stunning “Humans Bury Deep” that basically eradicates all of the vocals on the rest of the record, just because Sole -- for all the Live From Rome loving that CMG didn’t do -- is a gargantuan personality and can will himself into an excellent performance by virtue of that alone. By contrast, with the exception of Bleubird and Tweetch, who are still working on their magnetism grinds but outreach the rest of the guys on the record, the rest of the guys on the record are just the rest of the guys on the record: a bunch of solid rappers. A bunch of merely solid rappers who get subjected to Scott Da Ros beat-torture, and lose their identities in the process, no matter how hard they nobly fight the self-assertion war against.
Which is why this song, the mixtape-friendly / discussion-adverse “Dilshad and Tohti by a Frozen Lake” is easily the most remarkable thing on One Kind of Dead End. Ros puts his head down, stretches out eerie, icy -- ok, fuck it -- “glacial” strings, and, at intervals, gently crumbles drum fills underneath them, uncovering the missing link between Kid A and Ágætis Byrjun by way of Eluvium. It’s simple, and may have been the easiest thing to make on the record, but it’s also one of the most beautiful musical moments I’ve heard all year, and convinces that Ros should follow his instincts, trust his digging, and let his sounds make themselves. Yeah, he’s holding down his crew on this album, and that’s how scenes and movements are built, but the building is slowed when the crew returns the favour. The main conclusion here: we now know exactly where to look for the first “next” great Canadian experimental rap album (there hasn’t been one for a while). In my head it’s about eleven tracks long, took about a year and a half to make, features only one MC, has two guest spots, and three instrumental interludes. And it’s a concept record about a successful struggle to realize one’s leadership potential. Cuts by DJ Moves.
Aaron Newell :: 25 October 2006 |
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