Music review: Techno Animal - The Brotherhood of the Bomb (2001)

I'm not a fan of hip hop, so unless I find another alien pearl like it, this'll remain the only album review with that tag. I've tried dälek, clipping, Death Grips, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Genius/GZA and even more but I never found another album both consistent and striking enough to click with me; dälek's best albums together with some tracks off Liquid Swords and The Low End Theory were definitely good, but not enough for a genre tourist who only listens to full albums.

This one, though, blew my socks off. From the first track which sublimates everything good with serious hip hop to the very good instrumentals (half the runtime) while being constantly drowned in intoxicating, house-shaking beats and attacked by some MASSIVE lumps of harsh, wallpaper-peeling noise here and there ("DC-10", "Sub Species", "Hell").

This level of extremity and absurd violence isn't unexpected when you know the names behind it: Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, Scorn, GOD, Head of David, Ice) and Martin (GOD, Ice).

The rapping itself is also extremely good, marrying perfectly with those backing instrumentals and benefiting greatly in the variety department from being limited to a single song per artist. "Glass Prism Enclosure" is the only one I'd call lackluster here and "We Can Build You", while decent, simply can't hold a candle to the four remaining monuments.

Now, I do agree with the criticisms about the large amount of instrumentals sounding a bit too samey, but don't go overboard with fat trimming, they're part of the sound. I'd say "Freefall" and maybe "Monoscopic" wouldn't be missed, we certainly didn't need three in a row disrupting the album's flow. It's the main reason why I'm not giving it 9~10, to be honest.

PS: fun fact, this was released on 11 September 2001.