Deltron 3030

Spin (1/01, p.120) - 7 out of 10 - "...As a party record, it romps, with pumping keyboards on 'Positive Contact' and a chorus sample sped up for harpsichord effect on 'Things You Can Do' in which Koala scratches opera singers..." Q (7/01, p.108) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Nakamura's lazy jazz breaks and intuitive street smarts ensure the record loses little of the original deft hooks and finely crafted beats..." Alternative Press (3/01, pp.68-9) - 4 out of 5 - "...Nakumara turns in creepy, futuristic and bizarre beats for this concept album about fantastic, backwards human civilization in the year 3030...crowded with guest appearances..." Magnet (p.82) - "[It was] Nakamura's most consistent creation as beatmaker and puppet master....Endlessly entertaining..." The Wire (10/00, p.86) - "...A planet where rhymes are pecked into trees by gnawed off golf pencils between clenched teeth..." The Wire (5/01, p.59) - "...This is wire frame funk, more interested in suggesting than convincing..." CMJ (10/16/00, p.28) - "...[Its] slick and styled funk proves [Automator's] light years ahead of his peers..." Melody Maker (11/14/00, p.52) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...This is dark, jagged alt-rock hip-hop....a splintered, inspired soundtrack to confusing times..." NME (Magazine) (10/21/00, p.44) - 8 out of 10 - "...A space opera....the most purely enjoyable hip-hop album of 2000....It's a crazed sci-fi journey to Planet B.S., that takes myriad detours around the galaxy....utterly mesmerizing..."

The heir apparent to eccentric production wizard Prince Paul, Dan the Automator's left-field conceptual brilliance rapidly made him a hero to underground hip-hop fans. For the Deltron 3030 project, he teamed up with likeminded MC Del tha Funkee Homosapien and turntablist Kid Koala, both cult favorites with a similarly goofy sense of humor. Deltron 3030's self-titled debut is exactly what you might expect from such a teaming: a wildly imaginative, unabashedly geeky concept album about interplanetary rap warriors battling to restore humanity's hip-hop supremacy in a corporate-dominated dystopia (or something like that). It's difficult to follow the concept all the way through, but it hardly matters, because Deltron 3030 is some of the best work both Del and Dan have ever done. In fact, it's the Automator's most fully realized production effort to date, filled with sumptuous, densely layered soundscapes that draw on his classical background and, appropriately, often resemble a film score. For his part, Del's performance here revitalized his reputation, thanks to some of his best, most focused work in years. Long known for his abstract, dictionary-busting lyrics, Del proves he can even rhyme in sci-fi technospeak, and the overarching theme keeps his more indulgent impulses in check. Plus, there's actually some relevant commentary to be unearthed from all the oddball conceptual trappings; in fact, Deltron 3030 is probably the closest hip-hop will ever come to an equivalent of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. The album boasts cameos by Damon Albarn (on the proto-Gorillaz "Time Keeps on Slipping"), Prince Paul, MC Paul Barman, and Sean Lennon, among others, but the stellar turns by its two main creators are the focus. It's not only one of the best albums in either of their catalogs, but one of the best to come out of the new underground, period. ~ Steve Huey