Breaking Ground: Enve - Autobiography (2011)

 

 

Wow, can't believe it's my turn to do this again. Time sure is flying lately what with the stress and the stress and also the stress, who knows by the time you read this the politicians might have managed to manufacture a global financial meltdown. But that's when we need music the most, am I right?

Trylemma actually gave me this one before, which was fortunate because it gave me the opportunity to listen to it two times separated by a few years and I think I've got some intelligent type thingys to say about Enve's music. The album, Autobiography is really a fascinating piece of work for several reasons which I will go into in a bit. It is also really pretty damn good. I enjoyed it a ton both times around, and both times around was motivated to seek out more from this guy and his crew "Groove Movement" as in "got the new blueprint" to paraphrase. And both times around I recovered nothing. Looks like he retired following Autobiography (with the exception of some stuff he sent to T later on that apparently wasn't the same and never dropped) and this is it.

The dude in question is claiming on Bandcamp to be from Minneapolis, but also mentions a home in Eugene on "The First Chapter" (excellent track) and has features from NW dudes. I will say right off the bat if you liked Atmosphere (or still do, maybe because your doctor needs to lower your trazodone) and related you will like this. Enve clearly draws influence from that pseudo-emo, sad sexual scene that gave us Slug, Sage, Sadistik and stuff. He's got a number of songs on here about relationships, mental health struggles, music, etc. Nothing especially groundbreaking. So let's do some specifics.

For one thing, it is SO easy to dismiss this guy and his music based on several superficial things that are immediately evident. First we've got this name, Enve. So another dude with a misspelled name that's a random word and probably has no real connection to his music. It's like putting a "The" in front of some plural noun (The Protractors, The Spoons, The Noodles) as a band in the aughts. Fucking stop it. Alternate spelling was edgy and made a statement when most of us were in diapers, and now its just more of the same. Then we've got this album title. Wow. How DID he come up with that?! It's the most original title since Latyrx gave us The Album. Also the artwork I would be willing to bet was scrounged up somewhere and appropriated for the album. I could be wrong, but it looks pretty damn generic to me.

The good news is though that if you overlook that stuff you find a serious diamond in the rough. Enve has a fantastic voice that he makes great use of, giving us both solid head nodding bangers and emotional, melody driven songs that are catchy, fun, powerful and just damn dope. Imagine if Demune could sing, slowed it down a bit and did a bunch of songs in the vein of Atmosphere and you might have some idea of what he's about purely from a sonic level.

Another thing that makes this a winner is the production. Man these beats are the type of fire I was always aiming for during my short lived career as a rap artist. We've got a lot of acoustic guitar and strings coupled with atypical percussion made use of in clever ways (pretty sure that's glass breaking on "The First Chapter" where more logically a cymbal crash might have gone, and that muted snare that drives "Without a Map" is serious ear crack. Whoever did these beats (and we get one or two names, some relative unknown calling himself Sapient?) was a true music fan and it shows in sample choice and the way they are compiled and reshuffled.

Finally, it is truly notable how dynamic and all encompassing this album is. In thirteen tracks we've got posse cuts, love songs, travel songs, depression songs, music songs, all featuring different lyrical stylings, different BPMs, wildly different song structures, different genres (not quite folk rap but definitely flirting with it in places). Autobiography is a truly ambitious, lovingly crafted, genuinely felt and meticulously crafted (if unfortunately named lol) album that pays homage to indie rap and all it can do while still managing to make truly listenable songs with replay value even a decade later.

Thanks for this one Trylemma, and Enve sorry for clowning on the name and album title, this shit is solid as all hell.

Download Insert better name here right here for free, and see you next time!