Fantastic Damage

Of all the boundary-pushing underground hip-hop acts who emerged in the late '90s, Company Flow was easily among the hardest and least compromising, spinning highly technical rhymes over buzzing, lo-fi beats with virtually no concessions to melody or polish. It comes as no surprise that onetime Company Flow leader El-P's solo debut, Fantastic Damage, takes a similar approach -- yet it's a logical and distinct progression from the sound that made Company Flow such seminal figures in underground rap. Fantastic Damage is even more aggressive and confrontational in its approach, and this time out, El-P himself is solely responsible for the sonic backdrop, producing the entire record by himself. If the production sounds a little fuller than Company Flow's essential Funcrusher Plus, it's likely because in many places, El-P has fleshed out his scuzzy, banging, stop-start percussion tracks with abrasive, distorted noise, which sounds like nothing so much as the furies unleashed. There are also plenty of tinny, blooping vintage synths that lend the music a cold, inhuman air -- and that's no doubt intentional, because Fantastic Damage paints a chilling portrait of contemporary society that's so bleak it often crosses into the apocalyptic. The music makes El-P's paranoid totalitarian nightmares totally convincing, not just because of its sheer wallop, but also in the subtler details that emerge with repeated listens -- the bizarre sound snippets and ghostly washes that seem to teeter on the edge of madness. Throughout the record, El-P proves he's one of the most technically gifted MCs of his time, spitting out near-impossible phrases and rhythmic variations that simply leave the listener's head spinning. Accessible it isn't, but Fantastic Damage constitutes some of the most challenging, lyrically dense hip-hop around, assembled by one of the genre's true independent mavericks. ~ Steve Huey

みずから立ち上げたレーベル、デフィニティヴ・ジャックスのコンピレーションに続いて、ついにリリースされたエル・P（元カンパニー・フロウ）のソロ・アルバム。ソロ移行後のプロデュース・ワークでは、テクノロジーの比率を高くしながら、グループでのケレンとも取れそうなギリギリまでの緊張感から解き放たれたかのごとき音楽性を見せていたが、本作ではその世界観がいまなお健在であることをも併せて随所で表現。音楽的な精度と込みのキャリア総括アルバムとも取れる一枚だ。音楽そのものの言い知れぬ威圧感は後退したが、フリーキーなセンスがより露わになったアルバムは、あらためて彼のサウンド・クリエイターとしての才を認識させるに十分。正直、先のコンピの風通しの悪さにこのアルバムへの期待もいささか薄れていたのだが、エル・Pというアーティストにはまだまだ新しい引き出しを望んでもよさそうだ。
bounce (C)一ノ木裕之