Beauty and the Beat in Bloomington, MN

Boston's
Edan
has scored the
hip-hop
triple crown, rapping, programming and sampling at a masters level on his second full-length. As an MC, he bows down while hyping himself up on the wink-nudge titled
"Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme,"
giving extended shout-outs to the history of
, from
Afrika Bambaataa
and
Grandmaster Flash
through to
Ultramagnetic MC's
Prince Po
, all over a break as dusty and faded as an episode of
Carnivale
.
"Polite Meeting"
offers a beat and sample collage on par with the current work of
DJ Shadow
RJD2
, and one is left to really ponder at the possibility of
trying to perform the beats and vocals live.
Def Jux
bright star
Mr. Lif
makes a guest appearance on the heavily
psychedelic
"Making Planets,"
which leads into a full-on
Hendrix
-inspired freaky-
blues
interlude.
Percee P
Insight
also drop by to flow over some of
's time and space warping musical beds (to call these "beats" would be an immense oversimplification) but
Dagha
guests on the grittiest rocker,
"Rock'N'Roll"
which manages a full-on Marshall stack set to ten, and a guitar assault that somehow avoids all of the failings of
rap-rock
. If
had existed in the days of
the Filmore
,
Woodstock
and the
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
would have been right on the bus. ~ Joshua Glazer