::: I came across this album working for KJHK 90.7 in Lawrence, when I was doing the HipHopHyp show. I am a huge fan of instrumental hip hop, and at the time I was constantly searching for new artists to play for my show. I stumbled upon Leaf and decided to check it out. To this day I am amazed that Leaf has managed to fly under the radar in the instrumental scene. Made Into Itself is a downbeat masterpiece in my opinion, where Leaf utilizes unique samples from all genres and some of the dopest drum beats i've heard in a while. This album has a dark overall vibe, but Leaf manages to not make the album feel too dismal or depressing. I guess I would compare their style to DJ Krush (i.e. Jaku, The Message at the Depth) or some of the more recent Anticon releases (Odd Nosdam, Jel, DJ Mayonnaise). Leaf tends to use samples from instruments of other cultures and countries, in addition to the more distorted synth sounds characteristic of some Anticon releases. Perhaps my favorite part about Made Into Itself is the incorporation of spoken word that is both deep and insightful. Leaf doesn't chime in with these words of wisdom too often, but when they do it always makes me stop and pay a little bit more attention to the music. I recommend this to fans of instrumental hip hop, or just anyone who can appreciate good quality music. With this combination of great samples with thumping bass lines and drumbeats, it's hard to go wrong.
Here's a quote from "Lounge Dealers"
Intent of those will not be shown to you. Television has made the planet a global village. Others' trials and tribulations have become my concern and abandon in the same breath. Everyone has their own god, their own carbon-copy religion. You wave a banner that reads "praise the one true god," but standing behind you in the commotion I think you want me to worship a dog. And now I hate you and your views for no apparent reason. All religions are based on factual intent, but we don't know how to apply the religious ideas to contemporary life. Every faction has myths, all myths teach you to go inwards. I watch Star Wars like my mother reads to New Testament. It is the new myth. Faust gives us Mephistopheles, Lucas gives us Lord Vader. He is the embodiment of man struggling with machine. The symbiotic relationship made of constricting circuitry and empowering anonymity. Machines help us fulfill our image of what the Earth is, and what we want it to be. But if the marionette is heavy enough, unexpected movement will carry the puppet-master's hand against his will. Progress without permission. The eternal absolute struggle surfaces. It is said that Eisenhower went into a room full of the first supercomputers, and put a question to the machines. Is there a god? They all start processing, lights flash, magnetic wheels turn... and after a while a voice says... "now there is."
I had to listen to the track and type that as I heard it so... you're welcome.
1.30.2008
Leaf: Made Into Itself (2005)
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3 comments:
A good album indeed. Thank you for taking the time to write down "Lounge Dealers". I've started with "Intelligent Design", but found a more accurate version on the web containing the following;
My condition is bleeding. Momentary bliss by way of compensation. Hypnotized by city lights and consumer resolution; listen to the sound of silence. Noise pollution from political tyrants of public anxiety, social firing squads inlined for a hand-out; we must not surrender to our sorroudings; escape-ism is not an option; refuse to accept excuses for complexity [...]; words make the world go around; smoke squares, pop pills, drinking bottles of lies and swallow your pride. Separate yourself from everyone else by thinking for yourself. There are people who think like you. Though few and far between us, truth seekers and speakers of the future have no place in the past. Wake up, go to work, go home, repeat, rent, [...], spin-cycle, buy more gas, sell your soul, no white-picket fences, only privatized prisons funded by federal fascists. You are the inevitable statistic - today is your lucky number. We are the slaves... with modern names. We are the last dying breath of Columbus, the first inhale of baby Hitler, the slow-moving bullet on its way to Kennedy's brain, the seed swallowed by Lewinsky, the bloody glove that doesn't fit; we are the test subjects for better space chimps; we are wrecknology. We are lost in Bermuda's triangle, we are cemeteries, abortion clinics, [...] financial aid, minimum wage, taxes paid are put into grave. I intent to fight the odds. I will leave no friend behind enemy lines. You will commit to a car payment but not free thought. If you consider all that brought you here, all the decisions, people, sweat that its taken and still go back to the pleasant pleasure of man's undoing. I will still love because we are as one. I have met the real you, and you are not that person. You are a different version made to survive and striving to be perfect inside a world made into itself.
thank you thank you thank you! I just came over it and it stroke me!
Truer words have never been spoken.
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