So, the new Prefuse 73 then...

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I didn't even know it was coming out, but I picked it up today and it's great. All the beats are just slamming, it perfectly walks the line between interesting metric manipulation (lots of triplet stuff) and keeping it funky. I love all his sounds, I just want to roll around in them.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

awesome. sorta emo though

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

its ok.

― chaki (chaki), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Just copped it. My first impression is that it's very well distributed. I haven't listened to it yet, though, of course.

― Adam A. (Keiko), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:46 (twenty-two years ago)

bright shiny thing. like.

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:49 (twenty-two years ago)

If I'm into it it, then Chaki is apathetic. Unless it happens to be Prince.

(note: this may or not be true. it might just have happened with that Snoop Dogg tune)

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 9 May 2003 00:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I want to check it out simply because simion reynolds prefers ludicrious on his blog. that made me want to check it. if reynolds is dissin it.

― gallantseagull, Friday, 9 May 2003 00:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I like Vocal Studies more. I like my raps heavily chopped up, and a few tracks on the new one, notably "Huevos", don't do much for me.

But I agree with Jordan the polyrhythms on One Word Extinguisher give you lots to listen to and I'm sure I'll enjoy it on headphones.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Friday, 9 May 2003 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha, I'm listening on headphones right now (needed to check the title of "Huevos" so I could gripe about it, see above). As predicted, pretty spectacular hearing it this way.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Friday, 9 May 2003 02:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I like it better than the first one. I'm not sure how to say why, but it's like the tracks have more character that prevent them from blending into each other and keep you from zoning out and not really listening to it?

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Friday, 9 May 2003 07:07 (twenty-two years ago)

gallantseagull = Rough Trade prez??

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 9 May 2003 07:10 (twenty-two years ago)

gosh i wish i was. that'd be nice. I like simons writin but usually he picks on stuff that is undeniably good because it don't fit with his skew on things. or more to the point that it doth fit by not liking it. in fact i used to find more good stuff in his unfaves list then in his faves. well maybe not but jist as much.

sorry i forgot we'd banned talking about him.

lets talk about johnny cigarettes instead.

― gallantseagull, Friday, 9 May 2003 07:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Something about this album inspired a kind of revulsion in me. I mean, I really hated it. First listen. I haven't even listened to the whole thing, I hated it so much. I guess I expect hip hop to have some soul to it, and when it starts to sound like experimental electronic music, something in me turns off. This may be a problem with labelling, but still.

Hated it hated it hated it.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 9 May 2003 07:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I intended to write a review of it, but I know now that I can't. My hate is way too irrational.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 9 May 2003 07:40 (twenty-two years ago)

kenan, i dont hate prefuse and i dont know of soul but i sort of know what you're talking about. something about him has a warmed over feeling which doesn't really bode well with me. for me it's not the electronic inflection itself, it's just that his glitch chips and bits are all pastel-tinted and sandpapered. like you need the pain but the whip is only scented kleenex so when it hits - sigh, oh well.

― Honda (Honda), Friday, 9 May 2003 08:02 (twenty-two years ago)

It's still sitting on my shelf waiting for me to get round to it this weekend I'm afraid; I've had Blur, Four Tet and some old Susumu Yokota and Todd Edwards to get my teeth into over the last few days. But VN&US has been on the walkman for the last two days (after picking it up last week) and I'm very keen so far.

Kenan; there is no soul! It does not exist! One day I shall prove this.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 9 May 2003 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I was thinking about picking this up...waiting to see what y'all think of it? Has anyone heard Pulseprogramming? Any good? Is there a thread on it?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Friday, 9 May 2003 09:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Experimental electronic music does not necessarily = no soul! I think it's got plenty, in it's way. Especially the Dabrye cut...it's pretty much just boom bap, handclaps, upright bassishness and Rhodes after all. It made me dance earlier. It's also got enough polyrhythms and cuts to keep the muso in me interested.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 9 May 2003 09:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Has anyone heard Pulseprogramming? Any good? Is there a thread on it?

There is now :p

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Friday, 9 May 2003 09:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I need to listen to this at least five times before I have an opinion. I've only listened twice so far.

"Afternoon Love-In" on Vocal Studies... is beautifully soulful.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 May 2003 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)

this record is all over the place. but in a good way. i like it a lot.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Got about two and a half listens in thus far and really like it. What is it? Hip hop? Electronica? 'Downbeat'? Street? Who cares.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 13:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Z'dead good. Dats all dat matterz.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Here endeth my music journalism career.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

all his music reminds of varnished tables. this is not a judgement.

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Experimental electronic music does not necessarily = no soul!

w0t u tA1king ab0t aUt3chr3 ar3 digita1 fUnk! 1issen to v1etrmx & get bacK t0 me!!1!

― iDmb0i (Leee), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I need to listen to this at least five times before I have an opinion. I've only listened twice so far.

Okay, after about a dozen listens now, I am loving it.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 15 May 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Oh my god this is freakin' AWESOME!

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 00:30 (twenty years ago)

the new one....

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 00:30 (twenty years ago)

Yay someone else who likes it! Everyone was being rather haterrific towards it. Don't be bitter he yelled at y'all for downloading, folks! "Ty vs. Deichibe" is my song of the week.

― Candicissima (candicissima), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 00:55 (twenty years ago)

They were talking about the other one, which was good. The new NEW one is pretty awful.

― Zed Szetlian (Finn MacCool), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 00:57 (twenty years ago)

And I'm, like, a fanboy.

― Zed Szetlian (Finn MacCool), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 00:58 (twenty years ago)

You know, when I first heard "One Word," I really hated it. I was all "he totally fell off" and then I got "Extinguished" and it all made sense. Prefuse albums are growers!

― Candicissima (candicissima), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 01:07 (twenty years ago)

but what if you bought surrounded by silence, listened to it twice, and haven't felt the slightest bit compelled to put it on again?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

i saw these chaps at ATP. rather impressed, i was.

― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

i really like the new album. might be my favourite thing hes done actually. always tried to get into what he used to do but never really 'got' what the fuss was about.

― Yellow Carded (titchyschneiderMk2), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 11:55 (sixteen years ago)

this is actually prob his most 'soulful' album too, but without losing his quirks.

― Yellow Carded (titchyschneiderMk2), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 11:55 (sixteen years ago)

ive yet to have anything he's done grab at anything other than a "hmmm, impressive" level. it doesn't seem to inspire any strong emotions, even excitement, and he tends to disrupt or cut short his grooves before they really take (which is the point maybe). but i will check this out and hopefully be more than just hmmm impressed?

― See you dudes on the G train (rent), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 12:52 (sixteen years ago)

was he always doing the cutting the tracks short thing? this one seems to do that a lot more than anything i remember of his before.

― Yellow Carded (titchyschneiderMk2), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:13 (sixteen years ago)

this guy is too prolific

― Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:21 (sixteen years ago)

uprock narratives wouldn't sit still for more than 30 seconds, iirc, and was playing with all these diff textures, so that it was almost exhausting to listen to the who thing. OWE seemed a little smoother on that count, and "reads the books" forced him to do more with less but was kind of boring as a result. it's weird because if you described what he does i would be like "yes, that's exactly what i want to hear" but in practice it just feels like an exercise in skill or something. i should probably go back and listen again, because it's been a few years...

― See you dudes on the G train (rent), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:26 (sixteen years ago)

What was the album where it was a continuous mix? Extinguished? I think that's still my fave, even though it was supposedly album outtakes because it somehow works as a mixtape where the tempo completely varies every few minutes.

― mh, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:39 (sixteen years ago)

i think this might actually be his best album though after repeated listening its not quite as consistently 'dreamlike' as first thought

― Yellow Carded (titchyschneiderMk2), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:49 (sixteen years ago)

― mh, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 13:39 (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

think it was the extinguished outakes record

― straightola, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 14:14 (sixteen years ago)

So is it worth checking back in with this stuff then? I checked out after Surrounded by Silence.

― legendary North American forest ape (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 10 March 2009 14:16 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

Vocal Studies level was never reached again imo. Something about the way that record SOUNDS, it's just

― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 23 November 2010 05:43 (fifteen years ago)

I've never been too excited by what I've heard of his, but I'm curious to hear the forthcoming one with assorted female vocalists.

― _Rudipherous_, Tuesday, 23 November 2010 14:09 (fifteen years ago)

five years pass...

Vocal Studies level was never reached again imo. Something about the way that record SOUNDS, it's just

― portrait of the artist as a yung joc (Hurting 2), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 12:43 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Thursday, 18 August 2016 19:20 (nine years ago)

four years pass...

His "Failing Institute" series has been lovely stuff. Feel like it's flown under the radar, but Herren's put out four album length releases since last September. They're all surprisingly great on their own, with each record so distinctly focused on its theme. Obviously stylistically he's far removed from his early 00's era, but it's felt like he's been meandering a lot over the years and I've been let a bit cold on more things than not. On these releases there's still some of that, but in a way more playful and entertaining way. He sounds a bit revitalized here and the timbrel focus of each theme feels like a fun example of "creativity within constraints".

https://prefuse73.bandcamp.com/album/the-failing-institute-of-drums-other-percussion
https://prefuse73.bandcamp.com/album/the-failing-institute-of-the-human-voice
https://prefuse73.bandcamp.com/album/the-failing-institute-of-the-contras
https://prefuse73.bandcamp.com/album/the-failing-institute-of-the-sampled-source

― octobeard, Sunday, 7 March 2021 04:44 (five years ago)

thanks for flagging this! 'Drums & Other Percussion' is hitting the spot right now and looking forward to exploring the others

― blue6ave, Sunday, 7 March 2021 06:29 (five years ago)

This sounds like my kind of deal, excited to check these out

― change display name (Jordan), Sunday, 7 March 2021 17:21 (five years ago)

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