Our Pathetic Age

デ・ラ・ソウル、NAS、デイヴ・イースト、ウータン・クランのインスペクター・デック/ゴーストフェイス・キラ/レイクウォン等、豪華ゲスト多数コラボレーションしているダブル・アルバムが、NASの主宰するレーベルMass Appeal Recordsよりリリース!

CDには23曲収録!冒頭の11曲はインストゥルメンタル、DJ Shadow自身初のオーケストラ作品を含む、希望に満ちた音が溢れている。後半は、ヴォーカルをフィーチャーした内容となっており、デ・ラ・ソウル、NAS、デイヴ・イースト、ウータン・クランのインスペクター・デック/ゴーストフェイス・キラ/レイクウォンの他、DJ シャドウのキャリア初期にコラボ歴のあるLateef The TruthseekerやGift of Gab (Blackalicious)との共作も再び実現し、今作に収録されている。

Seen by Shadow as his biggest and most ambitious release thus far, Our Pathetic Age without question plays out like an onerous undertaking. In makeup, the double album seems like a personal challenge. Its split into instrumental and vocal suites, both of which were produced strictly by Shadow with no other musicians, and is at once his most solitary and collaborative work. The title communicates the dominant outlook sensed even in the instrumentals. Shadow has suffused tracks with negative qualities at various points across the years -- as far back as What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 2 -- and finds new ways to evoke states of unease and dread. He reconfigures developments made by the L.A. beat scene he inspired, trap, drill, and U.K. bass, and abruptly changes course with dramatic piano-and-strings themes suitable for an environmental disaster documentary. Most of the tracks, including the high points -- the droning intro Nature Always Wins, the hyper-fidgety My Lonely Room, and the utterly peculiar and frolicsome vocal-trio flip Rosie -- are nothing alike. The back half of the standard edition is of similar variety and length, just long enough to accommodate around two dozen rappers and singers. The gathering shows off Shadows hip-hop clout and reinforces, with little relief, the producers bleak view of the present. The tone is set by Nas and Pharoahe Monch on Drone Warfare, in which the latters Check my beautiful black matte Kevlar suit -- cutting through drums that batter like 1990 Public Enemy or 1996 Chemical Brothers -- qualifies as one of the most boastful lines. Combat quickly becomes a concern thats secondary to the societal impact of the smartphone, still the object of Shadows ire. In the most vehement C.O.N.F.O.R.M., its cursed as a tool of sedation, distraction, and surveillance by Lateef the Truthspeaker, Gift of Gab, and Infamous Taz, moving from verse to verse like the rappers lack the time to let the rolling beat breathe. (In a way, its surprising that Shadow and Lateef didnt cut a sequel to Mashin on the Motorway titled HANG UP AND DRIVE.) Breaking from the script somewhat are De La Soul on the hyped-up Rocket Fuel and the returning Run the Jewels on the biographical narrative Kings & Queens. Between these highlights and the remainder, Shadow continually switches it up with trap gospel and despondent disco at the extremes and window-rattling drums a near constant. ~ Andy Kellman

ターンテーブリズム/ヒップホップをネクスト・レヴェルに引き上げた天才プロデューサー/DJの3年ぶりとなるニュー・アルバムは、2枚組のヴォリュームでナズ主宰レーベルから。Disc-1はインストゥルメンタル、Disc-2はヴォーカル入りのトラックに分かれたコンセプチュアルな構成。ナズやラン・ザ・ジュエルズ、デ・ラ・ソウル、ウータンの面々らが華を添え、ヒップホップのさらなる可能性を示している。
bounce (C)藤堂てるいえ