Search - Spectre :: End

"This is a time of major change...

philip kaffen | seattle, wa USA | 08/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...and it's happening so fast, I don't think we can begin to comprehend it" posits a woman's voice, supplemented by sampled violin and thick, deep bass to start off Spectre's third outstanding album, The End. Soon, rapper Mr. Dead starts rhyming and you are off on an "odd"esy of truly visionary hip-hop (among other styles), leaving the rest of the field far behind. This release, an apparent paean to imminent apocalypse, will not appeal to all headz out there. It is dark, dubby, and sinister (as would be expected on a Wordsound release), often in almost slow-motion with sometimes indecipherable rapping a la Kool Keith. Check out Handsome Boy Modelling School alum Sensational, ryhming in an off-kilter stream of consciousness way like he's got a mouthful of peanut butter or the ranting of God Albino or Sebatian Laws swimming amidst noisy, distorted guitars. The occasional raging is balanced by the use of more accessible pieces like Honeychild's slightly celtic sounding triphoppy singing or Oku Onumura's spoken word-dub piece, as well as by the gothic horror-core production on the instrumental tracks that make up about half the album and put you right in the middle of a dark, dank cob-webbed castle, full of paranormal rattles and low-end rumbles. Now if we could get Vincent Price to do some dadaist freestyle..."