EL-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

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5...according to our Brett on Wed 21 May, 2008.

After waiting five years for the wee man who looks like a squashed Josh Homme to drop another dystopian hip-hop bomb (I'm a poet and I didn't even know it) and wondering whether it could possibly match 'Fantastic Damage', El-P's new one starts out in the best possible way with a snippet of Twin Peaks dialogue.. Instant 10 out 10. It can get as dense as all hell with samples and beats piling up all over the shop, making the frequent drop-outs all the more satisfying. Those great paranoid sci-fi lyrics are still his bread and butter with the odd helping of black humour to lighten the mood, he even manages to turn a love song which talks about fucking on the floor into something genuinely touching and lovely, with a drum roll in the chorus that gets me every single time. A few members of the Mars Volta pop their afros in for a brief bit of pretentious twiddling, as well as Trent Reznor (not anywhere near as bad as it could've been), Chan Marshall, Matt Sweeney and James McNew of Yo La Tengo; it's pretty easy not to really notice any of them but that's definitely a good thing, there's nothing worse than seeing a great LP getting bogged down with high-profile collaborative 'moments' and in this case it would've been a bloody tragedy. As it stands, I reckon it's probably the best hip-hop record I've heard since 'Madvillainy', not that there's been a huge amount of competition recently, mind.. Go and see the guy live if you can too, he properly goes for it in a way most other hip-hop types seem to have forgotten since years and years.

Producer, MC, composer, musician, label boss and all-round fearless innovator El-P returns with an all-star cast and his finest and most ambitious work yet.·Having helped to create what has been variously labelled as ‘alternative’, ‘leftfield’ or ‘underground’ hip-hop, and reigning for a decade as its unofficial king, El-P is venturing into a new realm, and ‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’ is the living proof. ·El-P has enlisted the help of kindred spirits from both his own Def Jux camp and from further afield, so Cat Power, Trent Reznor, Mars Volta and Matt Sweeney of Billy Corgan’s Zwan all enter El-P’s world, while the likes of Cage, Aesop Rock and Mr Lif are as at home as ever. The glory of it all is that not once does this feel like a “featuring… Celebrity X!” album, but one man’s coherent vision. ·It’s still densely-layered hiphop, but with a widescreen ambition and narrow focus that sets it way above his peers, if indeed there are any. If Company Flow’s ‘Funcrusher Plus’ and Cannibal Ox’s ‘The Cold Vein’ are the Def Jux founder’s first two masterpieces, then this is the hat-trick. ·The vinyl version comes with a European-only red 7” featuring two exclusive remixes by El himself. ·El-P is committed to touring and promoting this record in the UK and his April tour will be followed by festival appearances, more touring and future singles and remix packages.

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