Search - Automator :: A Better Tomorrow [EP]

On his first solo outing, Automator (a.k.a. Dan Nakamura) extends the realms of hip-hop. Well, mostly--if he's not creating new sonic universes, Automator is at least exploring them more deftly than those before him. He uses everything from jazz breaks to hit-you-over-the-head hooks, repeated till your brain fries. In less talented hands, this stuff would be mush, but Automator pulls it off (though it is tough to imagine an MC patient enough to rhyme over some of the more languid tracks here). The title track has appeared elsewhere (and features the inspired wackiness of Kool Keith, here as his Sinister 6000 alter ego), but the three new, instrumental, tracks are what point the listener to Nakamura's better tomorrow: a world in which hip-hop is free to expand on the myriad sonic possibilities he touches on. --Randy Silver