Review:

on 2007-10-06 hstisgod Said:

I've moved the "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" album info, sorry subby!
Rating: 10/10

Review:

on 2007-05-07 hstisgod Said:

Finally got my hands on this... I will be back to throw down an editorial review. Faneffintastic album.
Rating: 10/10

Review:

on 2007-03-21 sublogic Said:

“This is the sound, of what you don’t know, killin’ you!”-El-P “Tasmanian Pain Coaster” I’ve always felt like the smallest cog in some grimy intergalactic machine whenever I’ve listened to anything with the dirty, electro-noise that has come to define El-P’s sound. Ever since that first glimpse of Company Flow’s “End-to-End Burners“, on Rap City one afternoon, I was hooked. Company Flow’s debut album, Funcrusher Plus, was an eye-opener that didn’t seem to follow any of those rules I was led to believe defined Hip-Hop music. It just seemed like a stream of consciousness form of rhyming over off-time post-apocalyptic beats. Like data being spit out of a newly powered-up computer, attempting to learn. But it was pure Hip-Hop, straight four elements. Rhyming, writing(graffiti), breaking, and dj-ing. All re-worked and ejected out in this new form. It expanded the universe as I knew it. Fast forward ten years later. Company Flow called it quits in 2001 and El-P and Amaechi Uzoigwe co-founded Def Jux Records in 1999. (A cease and desist from Def Jam forced the label to change their name to Definitive Jux in 2001.) With a roster that includes Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, Cage, and Mr. Lif, they’ve become the most respected independent Hip-Hop label in the industry. In this time they’ve spun out album after album of innovative material. Including El-P’s own, Fantastic Damage, which effected me as much as Funcrusher. Aesop’s Labor Days, Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein, and Funcrusher Plus were reminders of possibilities, kind of like the Terminator movies. Eerie and thought provoking, but not quite taken seriously. Fantastic Damage and Mr. Lif’s Emergency Rations, both released months after 9/11, put a whole new spin on the sound. A little too real, and a call to actually look ahead. Finally, after almost 5 years of waiting, El-P releases his second album, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead(ISWYD). I’ve read Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm. I’ve seen Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, and even A Day In The Afterlife, the documentary about Phillip K. Dick. But, I don’t think I’ll ever understand how they influenced El-P. He’s like some kind of time traveller that’s seen the future and needs someone, anyone, to listen. What you have in ISWYD is the results of people listening. The proof is in the collaborations. Mars Volta, Trent Reznor, Chan from Cat Power, and former Chavez and Zwan guitarist Matt Sweeney. As well as fellow jukies Aesop Rock, Cage, and Tame One. All spanning the spectrum that is Modern Music. The best way I know how to explain the album, is that at any time, El-P can be commenting on the state of himself, his relationships, his home, his city, his country, the world, or even Hip-Hop. I wonder, with hope, if someone will walk into I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead blind, and experience it, like those that first experienced Dark Side Of The Moon or OK Computer. I’ll say simply check this album out. It’s the next level of a better form of music.
Rating: 9/10