WFMU : Where dead air lives

"So far ahead we're behind you..."

If memory serves me correctly, that phrase pops up on Anti-Pop Consortium's first album, Tragic Epilogue.  That's the takeaway phrase that has always stayed with me whenever I think about them and how to describe their music to people who don't know their work.  I can still remember the first time I listened to that album nine years ago and how I thought that nothing else in hip-hop sounded like them.  Beans, High Priest, M. Sayyid, and Earl Blaize created sounds that were experimental yet unquestionably bangin' at the same time.  Their wordplay seemed wrapped in Dadaist thought while posturing on NYC street corners.  I wanted everything that Anti-Pop touched, from their collaboration with producers like DJs Krush, Vadim, and Spooky That Subliminal Kid to their full-length conversations with Matthew Shipp (their interview with DJ /rupture on his Mudd Up show hinted at another project with Shipp in the works).

Their signing with Warp Records was a brilliant move, one that would usher in other left-of-center hip-hop artists after them.  Their 2002 release Arrthythmia hinted at the greatness to come and was their best effort to date.  And then the unthinkable happened:  APC disbanded.  Believe me when I tell you that no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, was more pissed off about that than I was.  Beans would go on to record solo while Priest and Sayyid formed Airborn Audio.  While it was good to see them all active, it wasn't the same as when they were together.

All would become right with the world soon enough, however.  Talks of APC getting back together and recording new material began to circulate.  Their reformation resulted in new performances and a new album:  Fluorescent Black.  Even with the rhythmic advances that have occurred since their hiatus (the subwoofer-destroying bass of dubstep and the new school beat concoctions of producers like Hudson Mohawke), these guys sound hungry and very inspired.  Their live set at All Tomorrow's Parties features them firing on all cylinders.  You can hear a number of selections from their set after the jump or check the full streaming archive here. 

Don't forget about the remix contest for the album version of APC's "Reflections" (live version is attached below).  The deadline for entries is December 20th, so you have some time to download the raw audio and put your own spin on Anti-Pop...