Because there are just five weeks until Aesop Rock returns with another full-length album, we’re bracing for the mania that will surround None Shall Pass with numerous advance listenings.
Aesop Rock
None Shall Pass (Definitive Jux)
Release: August 28, 2007
None Shall Pass, Aesop Rock‘s first full-length album in four years, offers the most personally reflective material of the inimitable rapper’s career. Thankfully, that doesn’t divert his modus operandi to drop shrewd, amusing rhymes via his unique flow. The album’s production, mostly handled by longtime collaborator Blockhead and Aesop himself, is a deft combination of samples and instrumentation. El-P, Cage, John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats), and more make cameos.
Jerseyband
Lung Punch Fantasy
Release: April 9, 2007
Relying as much on furious explosions of saxophone and uncompromising tenor/baritone melodies as crunches of distortion and choppy metal riffs, the seven members of horn-heavy conglomeration Jerseyband faithfully fulfill their self-bestowed description of being pioneers of “lungcore.” Lung Punch Fantasy is a live album — and an excellently mixed one at that — that doubles as the group’s first release of new material since 2003. The disc has since picked up for distribution by The End Records, home of sonic brethren Estradasphere.
Dalek
Deadverse Massive Vol. 1: Dalek Rarities 1999-2006 (Hydra Head)
Release: July 24, 2007
(Read this review in its entirety.)
Following on the heels of this year’s new full-length release Abandoned Language, foreboding hip hoppers Dalek release some rare cuts with Deadverse Massive Vol. 1: Dalek Rarities 1999-2006. Given the group’s discordant loops and distorted beats, Dalek lend themselves more to a bleak and dark genre such as hardcore than they do to traditional hip hop.
Angel Eyes
…And for a Roof, a Sky Full of Stars (Underground Communique Records)
Release: July 20, 2007
By recently adding bass to their repertoire, Chicago-area four-piece Angel Eyes now have one more layer to crush listeners. Their two-song, twenty-six-minute EP is chock full of epic, droning melodies that pave the sonic foundation for detuned doom riffs, impassioned screams, and occasional moments of stoner rock.