Album Review: Serengeti ‘C.A.R.’
Chicago rapper Serengeti has had a strange career to this point. Despite having a sound that is accessible on many levels and releasing music for over ten years at an incredibly prolific pace, his buzz has remained largely “Under The Underground”, which happens to be a song title on his most popular album Dennehy. His off-the-cuff, humorist style is the focus of all of his releases from his alter ego Kenny Dennis (including the excellent Kenny Dennis EP from earlier this year), but the depth and creative introspection of last year’s LP Family & Friends was Serengeti at his artistic best. All of the incredibly detailed stories and references gave the album a strong emotional core, but when I found out that much of the album was Geti writing half-truths and fiction, I was truly blown away.
Hip hop is nothing if it isn’t a personally revealing genre, but Serengeti forgoes all the trappings of conventional ‘skillz’ and makes his impact in other areas. While his stories may be fictional, they’re told with such conviction and detail that you can’t help but believe them. His flow isn’t complex and he doesn’t draw upon a giant vocabulary, but his subtle wordplay and creative song subjects give his compositions endless replay value. Serengeti’s new album C.A.R. is his second project produced by Anticon’s Jel and Odd Nosdam following the Kenny Dennis EP. While C.A.R.’s analog feel gives the album a bit of a throwback vibe, the album’s musings on relationships make it a spiritual successor to Family & Friends. Jel and Odd Nosdam and their Anticon label are industry outsiders themselves, but represent the most accomplished producers Serengeti has worked with to this point in his career, and they don’t disappoint on C.A.R. Their beats range from melodic bangers to buzzing, dissonant concoctions, but Geti sounds comfortable on everything. His conversational flow and simple rhyme schemes make his verses sound easy to write, but if you really listen to his lyrics and let his concepts reveal themselves, the amount of work he puts in becomes clear.
I highlighted the song “Talk To Me” previously for Thought On Tracks and it’s definitely one of C.A.R.’s standout songs. Geti starts the song by describing his frustration in his music’s niche following before seeming to accept his lot and recognizing there are several ways to look at the world. The combination of frustration and acceptance is a common one on C.A.R., he has every right to be frustrated that his brilliant music isn’t getting the push that it should, but he recognizes that dwelling on the frustration is wasted energy. “Geti Life” is another lyrical tour-de-force that features Geti in prime self-deprecating mode, yearning for a hit record and telling tales of trying to get props (and girls) through his name dropping of more famous musician friends (Jel and Why?’s Yoni Wolf). Serengeti shows off his referential humor towards the end of the track with the lines- “My favorite team is the ’87 Cubs, I love Hawk Dawson, I never felt awesome/ It’s always been a huge problem, I have a huge nose like that woman on Blossom”.
As I mentioned before, Serengeti writes a lot of songs about relationships, specifically with women. His own personal history with women includes divorce and the unexpected death of a long-time girlfriend, so it makes sense that his stories involving women and relationships have a dark edge to them. The difference from most MC’s who’ve experienced hardship though, is that instead of truly baring his soul and writing about his specific experiences, he masks them through his fictional stories. While these stories may not be accounts of his own personal experiences, they feel incredibly real and seem to be at least based around emotions Geti has experienced, if not actual events.
“Go Dancin” is a song about a relationship that starts off promising (commitments to go dancing, get a puppy, travel, and learn Spanish) but turns into a song about isolation and growing apart. The melancholy production reflects the song’s tone and adds to the feeling of desperation that is present throughout the album. C.A.R.’s final song “Uncle Traum” is a heartbreaking story that Geti delivers in spoken word about a character whose wife was killed while cheating on him. The songs chilling detail in lines like “I called the wife’s folks to find out when the funeral was, no one ever answered the phone”, makes me feel that while the story is likely fictional, a lot of the emotion and detail comes from a real place. “Amnesia” is a playful song, but has a deep underlying message. Serengeti’s wish to “get amnesia and see you again” is a clear yearning for a past relationship that ran its course. Sometimes insurmountable negative thoughts and events prevent us from continuing personal relationships, Geti accepts this, but wishes he could erase these occurrences from his head “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” style and press the reset button.
The song “Chill” is reminiscent of Geti’s verse on “Universe Man” from Open Mike Eagle’s new album 4NML HSPTL. Geti gives listeners a series of quirky suggestions (“become a dentist, write poetry with quills/ exact your vengeance, become more skilled”) on how to live a fulfilled life and appreciate the small things. “Peekaboo” is the type of song that only Serengeti could make, a story about a 12 year old peeping tom who gets his shoulder broken by the brother of the girl he was taking pictures of. Geti’s hilarious story ends with him saying that he actually shared the photos with the girl years later when she was back in town. The track also features some amazing scratches by Jel on the hook as well as a perfect MF DOOM sample, “I’m at where your sister went”. Jel also contributes the album’s only guest verse on “Nice”, a dusty banger that features Jel and Geti reminiscing about the days they were riding Huffys and finding their way.
Because of his multiple recording personas and perspectives, the range of Serengeti’s appeal is wide, but the focused, distilled vibe found on C.A.R. and Family & Friends is the type of powerful, creative music that should be championed across the blogosphere and should truly allow Geti to reap the benefits of his labor. C.A.R. and Family & Friends both feature a runtime that is right around a half hour, but both albums are literally packed with thought provoking material and truly feel like LP’s, not random and unfulfilled EP’s. I had the pleasure of chatting with Serengeti at his amazing show at the Indianapolis institution the Jazz Kitchen last week, and while the performance was amazing, the fact that he confirmed this album was two years old and that he has a large number of releases lined up for the next year might have been the best part of the evening. Serengeti may have already accepted his current niche status in the hip hop universe, but it seems like he’s also accepted that his music is incredibly valuable and worth making, even if a larger audience hasn’t come around to what he is doing. Buy C.A.R. here and get hip to one of one of the most original musicians doing it in 2012.
Connect with Serengeti via Facebook | Twitter
Written by John Bugbee
EP Review: The Antlers ‘Undersea’
Thinking. Searching. Discovering. Smiling. Crying. Celebrating. These are what we are all doing every single day. But towards what exactly? We learn from our mistakes, bask in our triumphs, and hope for our dreams to come true. But in the end, is there a true point to it all? I suppose those who believe in god, or religion, would have an answer to that. But for those of us who ponder, we continually outsmart ourselves to whatever end we can conjure up at a specific moment in life. I’ve been a believer in the man upstairs, and I’ve been a doubter. But if there is one thing I can hang my hat on, it’s that there are certain things that transcend the second hand of the clock ticking away.
The Antlers have always been something of an opiate for me. The breathtakingly beautiful Hospice has gotten me through some of the most depressing points in my life the past few years. That sounds odd to say, because, well, that album centers around debilitating themes, but when you listen all the way through there’s an uplifting beauty to it. It’s like watching that bag float around in American Beauty. While the characters are completely downtrodden, there’s just something so simple and graceful about the surroundings that can change your whole perception. Anxious to shed any label of acoustic sadness fame following their breakthrough, Burst Apart was defined by depth, experimentation, and pushing the boundaries of consciousness. Perfect in its own unique way, the album dives into the fears we all suppress on a daily basis. What is death like? What happens next? Is there a next?
Undersea picks up right where Burst Apart left off, almost as if these song were meant to be tracks 11-14 after “Putting the Dog to Sleep”. Each features an expansive pit of openness and emotion allowing the listener to sink in as deep as they so desire. Perhaps that’s what makes this band, and these songs so special; they are as much your own as they are The Antlers. The EP begins by featuring a gorgeous trumpet accompanying Peter Silberman’s pitch perfect vocals with the “Drift Dive”. A dark song, the title fits the mood as the does the last piece of a puzzle. The guitar is effortless with a drawn out slide, the keyboard elegant, and there’s even a hint of strings. The second song, “Endless Ladder”, is by far the most expansive track on the release, clocking in at over eight minutes. This album’s “Wake”, it is a slow building monster of reflection asPeter Silberman remarks, “I’m an endless ladder, climbing high” throughout.
“Crest” features the return of the horns and thoughts on those who oppose us. The song’s sound shutters between curious and haunting with lines such as “through and through, they want to walk all over you.” While not a statement, it is more of a questioning, introspective piece. The final song on the EP, “Zelda”, has the opening mood of a funeral set by the bass and once again the trumpet. Silberman’s vocals rise above the dark and foreboding backbeat. They don’t offer hope or salvation, but rather simply comfort.
In all, this EP can be viewed as a watershed moment for the group. Perhaps more than any other band in the realm of indie rock, The Antlers are never quite sure exactly what they are and want to be. They ride the tidal wave of the present, painting a portrait of life in the moment. In a world full of people trying to be something, they offer a genuine spirit of what it means to be human. And I thank them for sharing, because without it, I’d be lost.
Connect with The Antlers via Facebook | Twitter
Written by Greg Dahman
Thought on Tracks 
Album Preview: Cult Favorite (A.M. Breakups & Elucid)
New York producer A.M. Breakups and his Reservoir Sound record label reside on the cutting edge of the region’s progressive hip hop groundswell. The collective’s talent has been apparent for a while now but they’ve lacked a definitive project to this point. That is all set to change with the release of A.M.’s joint effort with New York MC Elucid. Going by Cult Favorite, A.M. and Elucid are one of those producer/rapper combos that seem like they were made for each other. Elucid has built a buzz through a series of projects featuring his gruff, intelligent style over abrasive, glitchy production. I’ve always been a fan of his straightforward delivery, but some of the busier electronic beats on his releases made it hard for his vocals to make the proper impact.
When I heard A.M. Breakups would be lending his ever-evolving sound to a full length project with Elucid and listened to a couple songs they created for Backwoodz Studioz’ Cost of Living compilation, I got excited. After hearing their album preview mix The Kingdom a few months later, their debut LP immediately became one of my most anticipated releases of 2012. A.M. Breakups’ beats aren’t a 180 from the type of beats Elucid rocked on in the past, but Breakups attention to detail assures that Elucid’s verses don’t get lost in his atmospheric soundscapes. Both artists seem to strive for a post-apocalyptic edge to their sound. All of the songs found on The Kingdom not only achieve that edge, but are so impressive it’s a wonder they didn’t make the full length album.
A.M. Breakups’ production is particularly impressive on The Kingdom, maybe his best batch of beats yet. He constantly has me asking where he gets the various sounds he utilizes on every beat, but on these tracks he takes it a step further by truly building his effects around Elucid’s serpentine verses. Every beat has a solid, rhythmic base, but Breakups lifelike samples levitate around Elucid’s vocals, giving the music a three dimensional feel. The opening track “Heavy Metal (Version)” has the type of grinding beat I couldn’t see anyone but Breakups making, accentuated by his alternating swirls and jingles that create a strong visual beneath Elucid’s metaphorical musings- “I’m lost but still on course, fuck the anchor”.
Elucid’s content-rich flow is as assured and versatile as it’s ever been, and it’s obviously the focus of the music here. His sharp, rhythmic criticisms combined with Breakups’ spacey beats almost make him sound like a repulsed alien who’s been observing injustices from afar and compiling an audio journal. Elucid has a way of making every song sound like an opus with his cryptic, probing verses. He doesn’t wow you with an astounding vocabulary or delivery, but he’s found a way to use his unique voice and creative perspective/thought-process to his advantage. Clear cut song meanings can be tough to pin down, but each line is carefully crafted and contains its own (usually subversive) context. Check out the 20 minute, 8 track (one mp3) mix The Kingdom below and gear up for the full length Cult Favorite LP, due later this fall on Reservoir Sound.
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Connect with Elucid via Twitter
Written by John Bugbee