Prefuse
73
Preparations
****
New
Prefuse 73 offering Preparations immediately hits you with the
classic Prefuse cut ‘n’ paste, glitch-hop but glows
with an organic warmth which he has borrowed from his other projects.
Experimenting with live instrumentation as well as his well-established
electronic production techniques Prefuse has gone all psychedelic
on our ass.
Playing a variety of instruments and re-sampling himself Prefuse
effectively created a one-man orchestra to play with. This additional
layer has added a depth and warmth that previous releases have
lacked. It doesn’t have the brain-melting impact of One
Word Extinguisher but it is a different beast all together
- this is more of a soul record than a pounding hip-hop release.
Cut up vocal harmonies replace the spliced MCing creating an other-worldy
electronic choir, which is brilliantly executed on lead single
‘The Class of 73 Bells’.
Whilst very much a solo album Herren still has space for some
blinding collaborations: with new Warp act School of Seven Bells
on the aforementioned single and with the mighty John Stainer
(Helmet, Battles) on ‘Smoking Red’.
Stanier’s barrage of funk-meets-stoner percussion underpins
the most explosive track on the album, as Prefuse cuts and splices
them to samples and sounds at breakneck speed. With all the collaborations
they take a back-seat becoming another part of the mix, where
on his last release they took centre-stage wrongly making the
production a secondary thought.
Preparations flows beautifully and is compelling from
start to finish and although the elements are slightly different
this is classic Prefuse fare - which is always a good thing.
by James Thornhill
