Sole x the Skyrider Band

Peeking with ones first long player isn’t always what’s best for the career. In releasing Bottles of Humans back at the turn of the millennium, Sole was able to announce some new bizarre bent to underground raptastics. It wasn’t necessarily a sound that was set to take over the genre, but a genuinely thoughtful and experimental caveat to the music. What Bottles of Humans gave angsty rap fans was a singular voice previously unrepresented in the game. And while looking back at that early Anticon release may grant the album something of an historical glow, tossing the disc on today will find listeners still being greeted with production work and raps that don’t crop up too frequently even now almost a decade on.

In convening the Skyrider Band in studio settings and on tour Sole has sought to make his musical presentations more unique. Touring with a band at this point isn’t all that surprising for a rapper  - I’m pretty sure I’ve seen MOP backed by  musicians – but in the realm of low-budget, independent rap stuffs, being able to maintain a group on the road is pretty impressive. So, yeah, Sole’s tours are probably entertaining – although, I’ve not seen him in a while. What he’s been cranking out on disc might be a bit different, though.

When taking a listen to Plastique, listeners should be advised to disregard (but not forget) past recordings from Sole and specifically the aforementioned Bottles of Humans. This newer fare isn’t detached from that classic disc (that’s right, classic), but there’s a different sort electronics being included here.

Whereas old tyme Sole discs might have counted some plainly experimental, computer driven works, the Skyrider Band comes by some of these as musicians as opposed to key punching and knob twitching. Drum programming still abounds – “Bait” seems like a good way to feature that. But it’s in the moments when Sole sounds as if he’s fronting a group that Plastique works best.

“More,” which is curiously placed at the album’s center, begins with a little rock vamp that soon easily doubles as backing for the emcee. Some guitar moans far off in the background while the drums shuffle and push Sole to continue his breath. There’re pithy paragraphs of indecipherable words before some section that functions like the break includes some more atmospherics. Heading back into a verse, Sole’s able to unloose another page or so of thoughtfulness as a slight piano eventually gets added to the proceedings.

This latest disc won’t ever supplant Bottles of Humans - not too much could. In Sole’s endless search, though, for the perfect balance of organics and computer-era rap stuffs, Plastique winds up being a surprisingly focused effort. Even a few missteps – I’m thinking of the disconcerting beat that accompanies Sole on “Longshots” – there’s nothing here to detract from the legacy that this emcee began amassing over a decade ago. Listeners aren’t going to be taken back to the golden age, but maybe this is a new age and one worth hearing.