Arrhythmia

The provocatively named Anti-Pop Consortium are the latest of a very welcome string of hip-hop acts to eschew the cliches and re-affirm the potency of hip-hop at its most beautiful. The battleplan is founded on articulation, honesty and compassion instead of offensibe ostentious wealth, mosterously bloated egos and lame, watered down formulaic rhythms and pathetically lame rapping.

Since 1997, Anti-Pop Consortium set out their stall to “disturb the equilibrium.” Three vocalists (Priest, Beans and M.Sayyid) found each other at various “rap meets poetry” events in New York and fused their early hip-hop soundscapes with E. Blaize.

They launched a frenized promotional blitz on New York, which landed Priest in jail for vandalism under Mayor Giuliani’s “increased standard of living” and “zero tolerence” regime.

Pop fans shouldn’t fret too much, as Anti-Pop’s provide meaty, minimal funk rhtms and ace electro hooks. Standout classic here is ‘Ping Pong’ – a fantastic cut percussively based an actual ping pong game! This is pop music at its most subversive and perverse. Quality cuts ooze thick and fast, peaking again with the hilarious ‘We Kill Soap Scum’ and ‘Conspiracy of Myth’.

While a fine album, its not as coherent or fully-formed as some of Anti-Pop’s previous releases, especially last years outstanding mini-album, The Ends Against the Middle. If you are looking for challenging beats and twisted pop, that’s a far better place to start. For the moment though, this will keep at least keep the anti-pop hip-hop kids happy.