Key to the Kuffs

by JJ DOOM

After his last solo album a few years back, and the frequent reports of him not showing up in person for concerts he's booked, I'd given up on DOOM (or is it MF DOOM again?).  The guy was mad talented back around the time of Madvillainy, which remains his greatest album, but it felt like he'd lost the plot.

Why did I buy Key to the Kuffs then?  Well, I find his collaborator on this project, Brazilian producer Jneiro Jarel, to be a pretty exciting beatmaker, and I was curious to see how his rather left-field approach would work with DOOM; at the least, I figured this would be a good beat cd, and that I'd just ignore Mr. Dumile, if I didn't like what he provided.

Imagine my surprise then, to find all my expectations upended.  DOOM comes correct on this album, in a way we haven't heard in some time.  He's back to his usual, nonsensical, smooth flowing self, and he rides these beats like he's actually interested in completing the project; something I haven't felt from him in some time.

As for Jarel, well he brings in some more conventional beats than I would have expected.  He still sounds like himself, but it's clear he thought about what DOOM's strengths are, and worked to support them.  This is still no Madvillainy, but it is a solidly good hip-hop album that holds up to repeated plays.

Fauna

by Jneiro Jarel

Jarel's been on my radar for a while, through his pseudonymous work as Dr. Who Dat and The Shape of Broad Minds, as well as through the odd production credit on some hip-hop albums.  Fauna is the first album I've bought where the credit is given to him alone, and it's a nice little album.

If I were to describe this simply, I would say that Jarel is the Brazilian Flying Lotus.  He works in the same mindscape of tripped out and abstract beats, but there is more of a South American warmth and feel to this.

The album opens with a discussion of the threat to the Brazilian rain forest, although there is not necessarily an ecological theme to the entire disk.  The second track, 'Castaju Cajunea' has a bit of a Deep Forest vibe, as indigenous singing gets a lush electronic backdrop.  The majority of these twelve tracks are instrumental, although 'Wave Trip' has vocals sung in Portuguese.  This is a lovely album.

I Am Not For Sale

by John Robinson

I think it was an interesting decision to give the album's producers as much space on the cover of this cd as the artist himself - it is quite a list of buzzworthy beat-makers he's assembled, and this became the big draw of the album for me, as I was underwhelmed by John Robinson's last release.

There is definitely an experimental vibe to the beats here. Flying Lotus's contributions evoke the language of insects, and Jneiro Jarel provides beats that are recognizably his without having to scan the liner notes. J. Rawls comes correct with a Lone Catalysts style track as well.

As for the songs themselves - Robinson is basically stating his claim of independence on almost every song. We get it - he's not happy with the state of hip-hop, and so he's going to make the music he likes. This is an admirable thing, as the songs he creates are consistently good, if over the course of the half-hour album, a little repetitive.

I find that Robinson wears his influences on his sleeve. 'Don King' sounds like it belongs on Nas's Lost Tapes, and 'Fly Prezidente', with its rhyme about cafe con leche, could have been ghostwritten by MF Doom.