New Music: SCVTTERBRVIN - Phantasmagoria

So it's June again (oh wait it's July now? I stand corrected) and as usual on 6/19 San Diego legend and serious indie rap pioneer SCVTTERBRVIN fka Scatterbrain fka Scatter Brain fka Scatter Brain the Acid Atheist aka Infinity Gauntlet has dropped an album for us to enjoy. Most unusually though this is a whooping 21 track offering of his signature grimy boom bap intelligent thug drug rap, and given lately we've mostly been given mini albums and EPs that in my opinion were awesome but just not long enough to pull me in completely, that's very very welcome. We've also got some new talent helping to realize Phantasmagoria with al3jxndro fully producing the work.

SCVTTER define phantasmagoria as a sort of turn of the century horror show involving a variety of sensory techniques to simulate supernatural, paranormal or otherwise frightening images. He also goes a bit deeper to help explain the relationship between that antiquated form of entertainment and his modern take on hip hop music.

"The word "phantasmagoria" has also been commonly used to indicate changing successions or combinations of fantastic, bizarre or imagined imagery"

 I do feel like that sums up his work in the past very well. Combining not just the usual choice of or self curated menagerie of samples and sounds in his production with his oftentimes disagreeable but always intriguing use of grotesque images in his music, but also the collages of such incredible visionaries as Albane Simon for the album art, SCVTTERBRVIN has never been just a rapper. He has always elevated the form and been doing it well for decades now.

Al3jxndro deserves special mention after I took the time to flip through this sprawling labyrinth of an album. The production is both lush and dope with an intricacy and style that's entirely unique. Makes me want to keep an ear out for more from this cat. Very well done.

 

Take the time to pick up SCVTTERBRVIN and al3jxndro's new album Phantasmagoria right here for an audio visual experience of epic proportions.

And I want to take a little bit of time to say how saddened and surprised I was by the passing of Gift of Gab. I remember vividly the first time I heard "Shallow Days" on a friends cassette riding in his car. I had already been introduced to indie rap and fallen in love with it a year previously (by a guy who loved Anticon the most although he did do me a solid in recommending Aceyalone and Illogic as well if I remember). Anyway I was immediately struck by the uniqueness of Blackalicious' sound, and couldn't understand why nobody had introduced me to them until then. The production was so clever and accessible and Gift combined a seriously dope vocal delivery with lyrics that both deeply moved me and helped to give voice to feelings I'd had about the world up until then but at age 17 had been unable to fully articulate.

I have to say without his music I probably wouldn't have been entirely the same hip hop fan that I am today. Rest in peace.