| Music |  | Land of a Thousand Rappers
Vol 2: WARHOL BUCK$
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| Land of a Thousand Rappers |
Vol 1: Fall of the Pillars |
 | CD - $8.00
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Release Date: August 7, 2007
Three years in the making, Land of a Thousand Rappers: Vol 1, The Fall of the Pillars, will land on August 7, 2007 via Asthmatic Kitty's new imprint for conceptual and electronic projects, Unusual Animals. This complex and obsessively-detailed sci-fi epic utilizes the medium of recorded hip-hop as a fundamental construct, not just as a shtick connection to the fiction of science. The album's commitment to narrative detail is exhaustive, like a zealous Dungeon Master for suburbanites weaned on Choose Your Own Adventure books, Yo! MTV Raps and noise cassette culture.
Pillar’s themes shoot in multiple arcs like quantum variables. Temporal discontinuity, the dialogue of race in American music, pyschohistorical revisionism? Geolinguistics, the vernacular of spam email, concrete poetry, the 1980's art market boom, Harry Partch, a book on afro-futurism that sells for $150 on Amazon? The Theater of the Absurd, John Titor, early female hip-hop duo L'Trimm, liquid computing, Moondog, Mesoamerican civilizations, etc? Huh?
Inspiration is not the only rampant form of nepotism on this album. This album is about connections, not only theoretical and temporal ones, but also those of a familial nature. Asthmatic Kitty's assistant director Michael Kaufmann, with the help of long-time musical and artistic collaborator Wayne S. Feldman, comprise the story's main characters, Future Rapper and The Holy Fool. Feldman and Kaufmann previously collaborated as the art-noise duo Therefore, noted for their 8 to 30 hour performances and progressive economics. Kaufmann also recruited dub-electronic producer extraordinaire Ero Gray, to play the part of Papa Alabaster. Other guest appearances include the Queen of Soft as played by critically acclaimed singer, spouse, and supermom Liz Janes.
This album is the beginning of a pilgrimage for Future Rapper and Company in this Land of a Thousand Rappers that will take nine more records to unravel. In the meantime, for anyone concerned about the impact of alternate timelines on colony collapse disorder, or ponders the way hip-hop refracts temporal discontinuities of spam e-mail and Mesoamerican civilizations, then Land of a Thousand Rappers is the trunk-rattling, ear-swerving, feel-good aural art album of the year. |
1) PAST ICE AND ICE AND MORE 0:58
2) FUTURE PAST PERFECT 2:42
3) HIGH WATER TREASON 2:00
4) BELLY OF THE BEA(TS/ST) 3:40
5) 14KARROT BUTCHER KNIFE 3:12
6) GRIZZLY AND THE TENTACLE SUCKER-PUNCHED 3:35
7) THE LATE RETIREMENT OF ELVIS 2 3:57
8) SILK SIREN SPORTS BAR & GRILL 2:16
9) CORPORATE THUGGERY 2:33
10) EXILE OF DR. KIPP NORMAND 1:32
11) FACTOR IX FOR THE HEADWOUND 1:15
12) WATER DISPLACEMENT 2:45
13) GHOSTBASE AND THE THREAT OF ZERO KELVIN 2:13
14) JUST INTONATION 1:51
15) YOU, ME AND THE BATTLEBLADE 3:56
16) ST. FRANCIS GROOVE 0:34
17) THE STRATA OF BROADCAST 1:53
18) STOPWATCH BURIAL 0:42
19) FORGET THE CAPES, TEETH ARE SNAPPING! 3:00
20) HOLY FOOL EN GARDE 2:16 |
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