Blogarhythms

The first time I heard a couple of tracks from Canadian emcee Abdominal’s new album Escape From the Pigeon Hole I remarked to myself in mock-Ridenhour-speak “It’s nine-teen-eighty-nine.” My exultation paled in comparison to Mistachuck’s resonant baritone and was far less indignantly enthusiastic, but that wasn’t the point (since I was not in fact fighting the power at the time), so much as the fact that homeboy was on some throwback Rap shit that gave me a quick flashback to the days of 1989-1991. Other than directly calling to mind the uptempo breakbeats and lithe rhymes I enjoyed so much during my teenage years he also reminded of another, more contemporary, emcee with a fastrap-fetish, Boston’s Edan, just without the dense syllables, spacey psychedelia, and grainy “wall of noise” crate-digger aesthetic.

Some readers might recognize Abdominal from his guest-work with British producer, and former Jurassic 5 tour-bus-driver, DJ Format, who he’s done a number of 12” and album projects with over the last six-or-so years. Anybody who’s heard their collabo “The Hit Record” (watch the video), which came off kind of like Big Daddy Kane meets MC Serch produced by Prince Paul, from Format’s 2003 effort Music For The Mature B-Boy should know exactly what to expect from Abdominal and his collaborators on his solo debut. His list of accomplices includes Format, Cut Chemist, Young Einstein (of Ugly Duckling), a dude named Bird who may-or-may-not be the cat that used to produce for Ras Kass and the Western Hemisfear posse (anybody know?), and a handful of others, which should only reinforce the fact that Ab’s intentions are to take listeners on a trip in the Wayback Machine.

Though he drops some downtempo joints and tracks that are more up-to-date production-wise it’s the fastrap cuts that are really Abdominal’s bread-and-butter. Higher-BPM selections like “Abdominal Workout” (check the video), “Pedal Pusher” (which is appropriately manic considering it’s about racing around on a bicycle), “Flyer Antics,” “Heaven’s Demon,” and “Radio Friendly” all knock. The dopeness of “Radio Friendly” is marred a little by the fact that it’s basically an extended joke with the lyrics consisting of Abdominal repeating some variation of the word “fuck” in every line. I get the gimmick, but it wears thin, and what could have been a worthwhile song (that I would have actually played on the radio) is a sophomoric exercise in foul-mouthed-ness instead. Thankfully the other “gimmick” track “Breathe Later,” where Ab rhymes as long as he can, ostensibly without taking a breath or punching in, works much better.

I like that “Heaven’s Demon” joint. It’s just weird enough to be a little “off,” while still repping the old-school fastrap steez pretty hard. Maybe you’ll like it too?

– Listen to Abdominal “Heaven’s Demon”

Escape From the Pigeon Hole is out now on Do Right! Music.

-El Keter