ElP - Fantastic Damage (16 tracks) +Album Reviews

Album of the decade

10/25/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'll admit, it took me months to get into FanDam. This album IS NOT EASILLY ACCESSABLE. I cannot emphasize this enough. If it weren't for my fondness for "Stepfather Factory" I might have never, ever gotten into FanDam. It's dense, it's thick, El-Ps lyrics are rapid fire and merciless. This album has no tutorial, no learning curve, no helping hand. FanDam just throws itself at you, its teeth locked on your jugular.El-P has produced the album of the decade. Track after track of sublime production (and it takes dozens of listens to truly appreciate) and unparalelled verbal assault (and it takes dozens of listens also). From the brilliant, creative opening to the cathartic, catchy end, FanDam is a comet that will be unmatched for a long time on the music scene (I don't say this lightly, I'm a music superfreak and rap is not my favorite genre). El-P is brilliant doing everything from dystopianism (Stepfather Factory) to meaningfull emotion (the beautiful and sad Toj) to just having fun (Dr. Hell No (Oh Yes I Did)) to his core style of gritty recollection (Truancy, Deep Space 9mm).Buy this album. Listen to it. You'll hate it. Keep listening. Keep giving it the benfit of the doubt. It's the most user unfriendly music I've ever encountered with the possible exception of godspeed. Makes Kid A, Sigur Ros, Can Ox, and anything else difficult you care to name look like hooky pop rock. Give FanDam time, give it listens, and it will reward you. An unbelievably good album.Picks: Easiest to get into: Stepfather Factory and Tuned Mass Damper. Favorites: Truancy and Lazerface's Warning."

Suckas better reckognize...El-P is king of dirty-ill, HipHop

Matthew Jaworski | Detroit, MI | 02/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am shocked by the amount of terrible reviews this album has recieved. Could it possibly be that those reviewers are feeble-minded sissy's? That is very likely. This is one beautifully ugly, hard-hitting, apocalyptic, punk/noise driven Hip Hop classic. The beats on this album are out of sight. Complex, ill, heavy, dirty funky. True hip hop in the punk rock spirit. Includes El-P's vastly improved flow. Complete with lovely sci-fi, anti-government, paranoia, and psychedelically tinged metaphor. This is my favorite hip-hop album from last yeat. Claustraphobic, dense, liberating, and mind bending. Don't heed the nay-sayers, let you're own ears decide,. and decode this dirty, dark, apocalyptic LP of real Hip Hop from the dark underworld of The Rotten Apple, NYC."

I think my lasers my head my spill out...

El Reanimator-o | The CO | 12/21/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Before I heard this, I had pretty much given up on hip hop. None of it excited me anymore, and I had never really liked most of it in the first place. Some here and there was OK, but I never really felt the vibe. Then I bought this. After the first track, I was hooked. I knew I'd be liking this. El-P's razor sharp poetic flow and killing machine efficent production drew me into the rubble of the bling bling world, bombed and raided. After a few listens, I couldn't stop playing it. I haven't liked an album like this in ages. There are so many highlights here. "Deep Space 9mm" bangs with some funky drumming around a battlefield of a background, with El-P ranting hypnotically about the chaos around him. El with Aesop Rock absolutely slays everything in sight with "Delorean". They really take it back to the time when ........ could rock. This is my favorite. It's lethal, and I haven't heard anyone flow so tightly together in ages as Ace Rock and El-P do. "Accidents Don't Happen" is ill as hell too. It just sends shivers down my spine every time. It's bleak, but at least it's told how it is. Nelly lovers are warned to stay well clear. And "Lazerface's Warning" is possibly the most insane thing on plastic I've ever heard.
I have to say though, this isn't for the mainstreamers. It's pretty harsh in tone, very industrial. I recommend it to anyone interested in a completely new creature in the music kingdom, or anyone interested to more abstract electronic music (as I was). There isn't a track here I don't like. My professer was even impressed with "Stepfather Factory", which I included in a poetry anthology I had to compile for the class. Probably the best album of 2002. Buy it, any check out the whole Def Jux label. Nothing but quality."

This is for kids worried about the apocalypse . . .

David Matias | Arlington, VA | 05/30/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I think El-P may have birthed a new genre of music with this album. The production on this album is truly groundbreaking and unlike anything I've heard in any genre of music. When I first heard this album I felt the force of gravity increase. And my head hurt as well. Fantastic Damage is a brutal sonic experience. This is without a doubt the HEAVIEST Hip-Hop album ever produced(I'm not counting any... rap-rock hybrid). El-P uses rock guitars and elements of electronic music but it all conforms to his unique sound. El-P has crafted a convincing dystopian sci-fi epic that sounds 50 years ahead of it's time without abandoning Hip-Hop's b-boy roots. By juxtaposing futuristic imagery with old-school memories El-P has made an album that will likely hold up many years from now unlike most rap albums of today. It's album of not just looped beats but songs that change and evolve and devolve right before your ears. It definitely requires repeated listening to discover the many layers of sound and well-placed samples and noises.
The only drawback is that El's lyrics are sometimes buried underneath a crumbled wall of noise. But when the do come through, especially on tracks like Stepfather Factory, T.O.J., Truancy, etc. they are fresh, unique and often exceptional. El-P walks a fine line between insanity and genius.
Bottom line, this is the most significant Hip-Hop album to come out in years. Don't sleep, this will influence generations to come."

Its....just the most ridiculous album of the last 5 years..

illcomplex | Virginia | 05/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To sum it up as quick as possible.....This is the album that anyone who claims to love this artform called hip hop needs to buy today. This album is a bombardment on your senses from the moment it starts...you can almost tell he had influences from his appearance on the Techno Animal, Brotherhood of the Bomb cd...his ridiculous flow and RIDICULOUS beats are what progressive hip hop is.....actually forget that progressive mess...i'll leave that up to Anticon ;-) Seriously though....this is well worth the [what] you will pay on it. Consider yourself deaf and dumb if the song Dead Disnee doesn't have you shaking your head when you listen to it, i won't even ruin it for you but just know when he starts to spit...he kills the track. Its on par with Funcrusher Plus and The Cold Vein....and that is saying a [heck] of a lot about it considering that Funcrusher has been a classic since it dropped and Cold Vein is less than a year old and is one of the most revered underground albums ever. Jay-Z the greatest ever??....no good, EL dash is in my opinion. Yeah i'm a definitive jux fan but even if i hated Aesop Rock and Mr. Lif. or MURS or Can Ox...i would say this is the album that has set the standard in my buying process....right now..and probably 6 months from now...nothing will measure up....Get this now. If you can find it, get the End to End Burners cd single...he and Jus kill that too.Peace"

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