If you were ever in doubt that any kind of music whatsoever can be mixed into hip hop beats, let “Dr. No” cure you. Producers are reaching into ever deeper tunnels looking for sonic gems, and Oh No has found a very rich vein to tap with the world of Ethiopian music. Dr. No’s Ethiopium, an album of hip-hop instrumentals, is a 36-track storehouse of soundtracks for future late-night freestyle sessions.

Some of the tracks call to mind the Ethio-jazz many are familiar with from the Ethiopique series, weaving a hip-hop beat under the sinewy horns and keys. These tracks keep the original sound intact while adding some low-end weight and an urban edge. Others are more experimental, dicing and chopping evocative, Eastern-scaled Ethiopian folk and traditional music and squeezing them into hard loops that crunch against each other with a satisfying crispness.

The atmosphere on Ethiopium is druggy and dark, but Oh No is forward-thinking enough to avoid pumping out dungeon beats or Wu-Tang style jazz-hop. The tracks vary enough in tempo and style that sometimes they jar against each other more than blend into a continuous mix, so this one works on “shuffle” just as well as front-to-back. If possible, this is one to have on wax, and I’m guessing that outside of the limited audience for hip-hop instrumental albums on MP3 and CD, the turntables are where Ethiopium is going to have an active second life.

-Justin Allen

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Oh No — Stones Throw Records

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The seventh album from this Bay Area M.C. has once again left me making the statement, “This cat’s gotta be one of the funkiest and most original dudes in hip-hop.”  At least his name still doesn’t lie, because Del the Funky Homosapien’s newest release didn’t leave me with anything but a refreshed understanding: in a burgeoning hip-hop scene where overproduction and a lack of true dynamic have become prevalent, there are still dudes like Del who can pull it together.  From start to finish the tracks on this new release maintain a consistency sound that all make them fit on the album. To me this can be viewed as good because there isn’t one point where it seems the album peaks and then tapers off with songs you want to skip through.  Seemingly darker sounding than prior releases, Funk Man (The Stimulus Package) has more of an ambient based beat quality to it with less of some of the other instrumentation than might be expected.  This could pose a problem for some of his more devout followers, but if you like the way some of the more synth based tracks on the 11^th Hour flow, then definitely give this album a good listen. 

-Jamison Kester

myspace.com/delthefunkyhomosapien

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