lone – lemurian (2009)
The wonky scene is probably the most interesting development in hip hop to come along in a while. For the longest time it seemed like Prefuse 73 was the only artist out there who could make IDM/glitch influenced hip hop that didn’t have its head up its ass. All that’s changed now, though, with last year’s success of Flying Lotus’ Los Angeles. It seems like producers have found a nice balance between glitchy beats and the vinyl-tinged soul of artists like J Dilla and Madlib — and, in Lone’s case, the tape saturated nostalgia of Boards of Canada. I’ve always felt like Boards of Canada owed a lot more to hip hop than most gave them credit for — especially in their recent material — and I think this album proves it: if it wasn’t for the relentlessly staggering drums Lemurian would be nearly indistinguishable from any of BoC’s work. Yeah, I know it’s unfair to judge this album by its Boards of Canada similarites — just from reading the comments on Lone’s Last.fm page it seems like everybody is tired of hearing Boards comparisons. That’s not to say that Lone is ripping off their sound, if anything it’s a compliment. There aren’t many electronic artists out there who can evoke that kind of emotion, who can make the artificial seem organic, but Lone is definitely one of them. Bottom line, this album isn’t one to miss.
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