Trimming down the somewhat epic sprawl and silliness of Primitive Plus into a concise thirty-four minutes Edan has produced a monster of a record with Beauty and the Beat.
The sound is old-school hip hop married to 60's and 70's psychedelic rock and roll, so... loops and distorted guitars, breaks and backwards instruments, rhymes and Pink Floyd samples, etc and etc, and so on.
The psychedelic feel isn't limited to the music alone, though, and with Beauty and the Beat Edan seems just as keen to recreate that 60's/70's sound lyrically.
Check, for instance, the trippy rap of "Beauty," with its weird narrative and even weirder imagery, or "I See Colours," which its references to acid and its kitsch samples, or, perhaps even the interpolation of a sample of the Hollies "Clown" in "Smile."
The guests are all beyond reproach:
There are two songs with fellow all-rounder, Insight - the best being the eternally funky "Funky Voltron." Percee-P contributes a typical speed rap over the aforementioned burbling synth of Pink Floyd's "On the Run" in "Torture Chamber." "Making Planets," which features a typically intense rhyme by Mr. Lif segues into "Time Outt," a segue which segues into "Rock and Roll," a song about rock and roll which features Dagha.
lick a shot
Reviewed on Tuesday, 8 November 2005