Fake For Real - Tag - MadlibThe English written companion of Fake For Real: since 1997, reviews and articles about rap music2024-03-11T20:40:46+01:00Sylvain Bertoturn:md5:a035ff44a020bb716e18191580d6e9ecDotclearQUASIMOTO - The Unseenurn:md5:e3456ea92e38577fa2cf2edd7d198a112015-06-06T11:15:00+02:002015-06-09T21:29:34+02:00codotusylvAlbumsMadlib<p>In 1999, Madlib had introduced us to his alter ego, Quasimoto, on <em>Soundpieces: Da Antidote</em>, the underground favorite he had released with his band, Lootpack. One year later, he decided to dedicate a full album to this character, so that he exposes him a bit better and gives more room to his most extreme ideas. This proved to be a success, artistically speaking; the rapper and beatmaker released a strange, atypical and intriguing rap record, as hinted with its unusual cover art.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2000/quasimoto-the-unseen.jpg" alt="QUASIMOTO - The Unseen" title="QUASIMOTO - The Unseen" /></p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.stonesthrow.com" hreflang="en">Stones Throw</a> :: 2000 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A2H79A/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000A2H79A&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>The weirdest thing with <em>The Unseen</em>, and the most noticeable, is the helium-infused voice of Quasimoto. As soon as with his first sentences, he underlined his uniqueness (<em>"I'm labeled as a bad character, whatever I do"</em>) with a bitter-sweet deformed voice, delivering his words sometimes slowly, and sometimes quickly, and speaking them seamlessly on bizarre and eerie beats, influenced by unexpected sources, like the French and Czech movie <em>La Planète Sauvage</em>.</p>
<p>In his lyrics, as well as with his beats, Madlib liked to surprise: he would stop his raps with insane brass sounds on "The Curse on You", or start "Low Class Conspiracy" with blasting beats, before moving to acoustic guitars. Here, with "Boo Music", he would try himself to a Chinese-sounding melody; and there, with "Good Morning Sunshine", he would opt for some kind of dub experiments. Also, he liked to play with recent memories, when he sampled the Wu-Tang Clan, Black Moon and Gang Starr. His taste for variations would reach its height with the various movements of "Return of the Loop Digga", built each on a different sample.</p>
<p>The main influence of <em>The Unseen</em> was common by these days, in hip-hop: this was jazz music. Madlib liked this genre, as he would prove a bit later with the Yesterdays New Quintet project, and with his interpretation of some Blue Note standards on <em>Shades of Blue</em>, but he used it in an unusual way. The far but powerful saxophone on "Blitz" was a striking example. Quasimoto liked experiments, originality, and he did that naturally, with ease, in a light way.</p>
<p>Some would struggle with Quasimoto's voice. Even those, however, could be convinced by his catchiest tracks, like "Phony Gane" and its harmonica, the ethereal "Astro Travellin", and the clever "The Unseen pt. 1". After repeated listens, they would also yield to the weird "Come on Feet" and to the prodigious chorus of "MHBs", one of the most intense songs on the record. And they would ultimately understand why Madlib, all along the next decade, would be considered – or even overvalued – as one of the finest beatmakers in hip-hop's underground.</p>
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https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2015/QUASIMOTO-The-Unseen#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2243LOOTPACK - Soundpieces: Da Antidoteurn:md5:00247cde8778a0ad599ae250ec3556472012-07-23T23:17:00+02:002015-06-06T10:18:22+02:00codotusylvAlbumsMadlib<p>There's been another Madlib before Madlib, before he became this overrated beatmaker, vaguely experimental but, to be honest, a bit irregular, and sometimes even boring and vain. In 2000, his helium-voiced alter-ego Quasimoto had released the great <em>The Unseen</em>. And the year before, the band Otis Jackson Jr. was part of, along with Wildchild and DJ Romes, had released <em>Soundpieces: Da Antidote</em>, one of PBW's Stones Throw finest records.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/1999/lootpack-soundpieces-da-antidote.jpg" alt="LOOTPACK - Soundpieces: Da Antidote" title="LOOTPACK - Soundpieces: Da Antidote" /></p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.stonesthrow.com" hreflang="en">Stones Throw</a> :: 1999 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000JHFO/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00000JHFO&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>This trio's only true album was part of indie rap's first wave, by the end of the 90's, an indie rap which was still well connected with the previous hip-hop generation (protégés of the Alkaholiks, Lootpack had featured on their albums), was full of revivalists seeking to make hip-hop as fresh as before (check "Interview"'s lyrics), through battle-style raps and assaults against wack MCs, and whose sounds, whatever people said, were not exactly iconoclastic.</p>
<p>Even if they were produced by Madlib, even if they displayed some willingness to experiment, the beats where not too far from the usual <em>boom bap</em> with its freewheeling loops ("Level Zero" for example…), and this taste for strings, pianos and soul voices, reminiscent of some minor Wu-Tang Clan relocated to California ("Law of Physics", "Wanna Test"). And concerning the guests, except for the Alkaholiks, well… we had some straight and not so imaginative rappers like the Dilated Peoples and Defari. With Lootpack, to summarize, we weren't on the most delirious fringes of the West Coast Underground scene.</p>
<p>That being said, <em>Soundpieces</em> was a strong album. More than to its linear raps and one-way anti-wack anthems, it owes a lot to Madlib's work, thanks to the slow and atmospheric beats of "Questions", to the lazy mid-tempo of "Long Awaited", or even to these "Answers" and "20 questions" where Quasimoto's name appeared for the first time. Also, much more than The Anthem" and "Whenimondamic", both tedious singles, the strings on "Law of Physics" made it a great track, and "New Year’s Resolution", "Weededed" and the soulful "Wanna Test" were all quite good, and much more tasty than the tiresome loops that would become Madlib's signature, when people would name him a genius.</p>
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