|
|
|
BANDS: Punk
& Ska INTERESTS: Venues ETC... About LOTD
|
Tunsi: The Omen
When the
first full minute of Tunsis "The Omen" hit me with its menacing
orchestral bass backed by piano and chanting, I caught myself thinking, "Oh
great, horrorcore." It wasnt a bad Oh great though; I might have
really embraced a good horrorcore album. It might be time for the underground
hip-hop world to produce some great, menacing, tongue-in-cheeky horrorcore. In
this case though, my major premise was wrong. Despite the eventual inclusion of
cawing ravens in the production, Tunsis rhymes make it clear that this
is intended to be something meaningful and political.
There are no late night theater, Grave-Diggaz style theatrics
intended here; Tunsi takes himself very seriously. Most of the time hes able
to pull off his mix of ponderous, dark production and ambitious rhymes. Most of
the time. However, there are more than a few flaws in the album that ultimately
keep it from being a truly good release. Fortunately
for us, Tunsi is a skilled enough lyricist and MC that his rhymes are never
embarrassed by the pomp of the instrumental tracks. In fact, he is
mostly able to carry them. His writing and his delivery are strong and clear, and
his words are intelligent. Tunsi is obviously an artist who cares about his
message. He speaks out on topics ranging from the frightening
transcendence of technology in our society ("Hidden Signals") to
lingering racism in government service ("Me and Sam"). Given the
promise shown by his writing and rhyming skills, it is really a shame how
several small problems with the way the album was assembled combine to make it a
less than stellar work. The worst overall offender is the inclusion of several
short skits that only serve to throw off the flow of the tracks and confuse the
otherwise high aim of Tunsis message. I really have no idea how these bits
made the final cut, but it was not a good decision. The other major complaint is
that Tunsi doesnt support his lyrical hooks enough with his production. (I
think I read that he does his own production, though I dont seem to be able
to substantiate that at the moment.) His instrumental tracks just seem to
trundle along an endless loop, with no change or variation to back up the shifts
in his flow. There are a few pleasant exceptions to this; "Take You
Back" for example, is a really interesting, fun track with lots of rewards
from both Tunsi and his instruments. Unfortunately, as evidenced by tracks like
"The Omen," it is far more common that monotonous beats replace
simple synth lines, rendering the track woefully less interesting than
what Tunsis words deserve. "The Omen" is a decent underground hip-hop album. The mic-work is solid and the rhymes are crisp. There are enough really inspired moments here to make it a good recommendation for the hip-hop fan looking for an album that never touches on the nuances of flashing bling and owning Bentleys. Tunsi demonstrates the fact that no matter how good you are, you still can almost always benefit from the work of a good editor. If someone had been there to put the axe to the useless skits, the album would have been measurably more listenable. Perhaps if the attention given to the skits had been spent instead varying the production, I would be really pushing this disc.
LEFT OFF THE DIAL's Tunsi page About LOTD Contact/Staff Advertise Home All content © LEFT OFF THE DIAL 2001-2005. All rights reserved. |
