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Aesop Rock :: "None Shall Pass"From None Shall Pass (Def Jux; 2007)
Praise God, Blockhead’s back. After Ace took it upon himself to self-produce much of Bazooka Tooth (2003) in a squiggly way which by no means complemented his flow -- only aggravating his gruffness and encouraging his syntactic wanderings -- the man that created beatitude-under-dissonance intercourse with Aesop’s vocals on the likes of insta-classic “Daylight” is reportedly tallying seven beats on the new record (with five from Aesop, one from Rob Sonic, and one from El-P).
This title track gets the celebration started. Blockhead grounds a central serpentine line with thick chord anchors, the snare chucks the track forward, and synth blasts squeezing between cuts emphatically punctuate the hook; he then later changes out the core for a halting guitar lick introduced on the beat’s fringes and returning there whenever the central line again takes the limelight. The beat has fluid momentum, exactly the kind of thing that brings Ace to his own fluidity, which means it’s also Ace at his most digestible, if no more comprehensible. I’ll be honest: I have no idea what Ace is talking about. I like the part where he cuts open a belly and a farmer climbs out. That is what he’s saying, right? Aaron thinks Aesop’s been covertly “bashing the church and the State while neurosing about death for about two years now.” That may or may not have anything to do with “None Shall Pass,” but we both agree that Woody Allen needs a guest verse. Regardless, the words could be little more important than they are in Ace’s Nike jog-jam, yet the music is even more propulsive, and I think that’s because it pushes Aesop’s rapping to run with it. Nobody’s passing because no one can catch up.
Chet Betz :: 12 March 2007 |
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