Search - Themselves :: The No Music

Kitchen Sink -crusty beats and observations, hold the dogma

Phil Avetxori | 11/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For many people, the Anticon crew area love 'em or hate 'em proposition. These are white b-boys who come across as genuine by keeping it real in reference to their own lives, rather than affecting a pose of simulated hip-hop "realness" and falling into the well-meaning minstrel trap. That's to say, Dose One, like the rest of his crew, laces his lyrics with bookish ephemera, references to now obscure 80s pop culture, wistful doubt, and the sorts of verbal jenga towers that part autodidact/part half-assed educated suburban intellectuals build up in vain attempts to outline the contours of that amorphous, unspeakable "it" which cannot be put into words, any more than 3-D object can be viewed from all sides at once. This is what mediated culture has given us to work with, and, unlike the indie-rockers that trade in similar lyrical currency, hip-hop has empowered Dose to plow through it all with self-assurance and Sisyphesian determination. Musically, Themselves are similarly both real hip-hop and not. Like DJ Shadow, Jel works up hand-cued grooves with a warm n' worn feel. The similarities end there, howwever. This music explores the full implications of the sonic junkheap aspects of classic breakbeat wobble, and manages to bring the boom-bap simplicity when relief from information overload is needed. Dissonance is a big part of what's happening here, but as transitional passage between overlapping consanant segments, it keeps to the overall tendency toward unlikely connections that ultimately sound as natural as a walk down a noisy city street. There are textures here that seem to come from out of nowhere, both in the context of this music, and in their sheer alienness to anything you've heard before. But it all works, and it frequently bumps, with the occasional nod to Timbaland that's all too rare in an underground hip-hop scene more eager to distance itself from the mainstream than craft creative beats. The contrasts between hi-fi and purposefully lo-fi elements is even more pronounced here than on the cLOUDDEAD cd and this seems appropriate for the sharp-turning kaleidescope of this music. cLOUDDEDd felt like a melancholy haze of opiated reminiscence; "The No Music" is a technicolor plunge back into reality by headz still steeped in aesthetics and poetry."

Essential White Noise

Myself | The Pits | 04/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Probably the most essential album in my collection, along with some Opeths, Metallicas and classical pianos, "The No Music" continues to fascinate me.



The big debate is: do the lyrics/bizarre composition mean anything? If so, then the Anticon crew must be geniuses! If not, then they are pretentious "art snobs". A proposal: maybe it doesn't matter. Enjoy the weirdness for what it is! If it means something to you, great! I mean come on, how can you resist "...they were, teeth clamped, face first you fell into the door you took the doorknob, how they all feel falling, shattered fish bowl, rocks out into your mouth, your eyes were huge..." and the likes? And what's with the recurring theme of people having jobs? Who cares what it means; it's awesome!



The thick production with all the electronic bleeps and creaks is kind of funny along with being mysterious and strange, i.e. "You Devil You". And the cartoon voice! THE CARTOON VOICE! Doseone is an essential vocalist due to both his humor and his creativity.



Best songs: The teeth one (track #2), "Good People Check", "You Devil You" and "Hat in the Wind", excluding the stupid poetic improv introduction.



And yes, Dose, we all want to masturbate in a planetarium."

Be careful

Phil Avetxori | 06/25/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In order to keep a balance here with all the other reviews (whose opinions I do respect), I'd like to say upfront that this album let me down. This album leaves a very strong sense of incompleteness, sounding like a rough draft to a final copy. Now there are many really tight beats on this album, but it seems once your head gets nodding it stops immedieately because the beat instantly switches up to something else. I would loved to see the final copy to this rough draft of this album; it's potential is very high but leaves you let down. At first I thought I got a bad copy of it since I can't even hear what Dose one is saying. It's not like the Them album where Doseone is clearly heard, but it's very muddy and distorted. I find it hard to agree with those revewiers who said Dose sounds very good on this album, for you can barely hear him. And the production is not good at all, unlike what that other reviewer said about putting other albums to shame in regards to production. did I get a bad copy or something, seriously? This production is the Worst I've heard, not the best. The worst. Now if this is the sort of thing that you like, then you will find this album to be totally sweet. I just feel that someone needs to speak up and balance the reviews on this page, because I bought the album fully trusting these reveiews and was severely let down. I resepect Dose and Jel if this is the sort of thing they were going for, but I just can't like this album. I love Sole, Alias, Deep puddle Dynamics, and Dose, so I'm not new to Anticon. But this album is not as good as the Them album by Themselves. It's decent, but not that good. Be careful."