Showing posts with label Count Bass D. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Count Bass D. Show all posts

Monday, July 19, 2010

Crate Digging: Dwight Spitz

by Count Bass D

Count Bass D is a massively underrated and slept on talent.  He is a beat maker and rapper who has been shuffling around the more underground parts of the underground for more than a decade, yet he has received very little recognition, which I always find kind of odd.

Dwight Spitz, his 2002 album, is a decent piece of music.  He produced all of the tracks on the album save one (contributed by J. Rawls), and lays down vocals on roughly half of them.  He has a unique flow - laconic and unhurried, with a deep timbre to his voice.  His beats remind me a little of MF Doom's style of production, although these are often more pop-oriented.

He is joined on this album by a number of different guests.  Doom is on two tracks, although strangely he is only credited with one, but it's clearly him on 'Make a Buck'.  Edan shows up, spitting the same lyrics he uses on his own brilliant Beauty and the Beat album.  MF Grimm drops a verse, and Hezekiah shows up twice, long before he began to make a name for himself.  In typical self-indulgent fashion, the Count has his young daughter singing on a couple of tracks, but it's all good, because the beat is pretty nice.

This is not a brilliant album, but it does have some very nice moments, such as on 'Subwoofer (Dumile)', when Dwight raps on his chorus, "I'm not Doom's brother, but I will rock your subwoofer, that's why they call me Count Bass."  The album fizzles out towards the end, becoming more varied and a little weak, like it should have ended with the twenty-first track.  Still, this is the Count at the height of his game, and it's worth checking out.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

L7 (Mid-Life Crisis)

by Count Bass D

This is a strange album for Dwight Spitz - it's really all over the map in terms of style. Some of the album sounds like his usual thing - 'Gio Any (I Cold Just Came In)' would belong on either Act Your Waist Size or Dwight Spitz, but many of the other songs make me think that he's trying to branch out to appeal to a wider audience.

Really, there's nothing wrong with that. He's not made any secret of his financial problems, and his lack of love for the industry is all over this album ('Back Pay'), but at the same time, pop-radio friendly songs like 'Can We Hang Out Tonight?' don't really work for an artist as eclectic and talented as Mr. Farrell.

I'd expected more from this disc, to be honest, but at the same time, parts of this album are fantastic, and deserving of regular ipod-play.