Kill The Vultures - The Careless Flame

Year: 2006
Label: Jib Door Productions
Style: Hip-Hop
Location: Reckless Records (Chicago)
Medium: CD
Condition: Used
Dollar diamond or dud: Diamond (barely)

Info: Even though I knew this was a hip-hop record, the cover art made me think twice. It suspiciously resembles a late-90s metalcore record - the jacket features lowercase typewriter font and obscure shots of a partially nude woman smoking a cigarette. I hate to go in to records with preconceptions, but I had a hunch I'd be hearing some Midwestern guys knocking off Clouddead. Note that I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, though, because I do enjoy a good Clouddead knockoff. Just sayin'. Previously, these guys were known as Oddjobs, and did the odd bit of touring with De La Soul, Atmosphere (blech) and DJ Shadow.

For the first thirty seconds of this record, I was sure I'd be sold. I was also quite wrong on the Clouddead tip. A stumbling, unorthodox beat laid under a loop of a saxophone kicks off "Moonshine," which is - surprisingly literally - actually about moonshine. A crackling "old LP" sound layer backed the verses, which is a trick that rarely fails to amuse me for whatever reason. The first emcee immediately reminded me of Aesop Rock (or, really, any number of other Brooklyn-styled emcees with broad pronunciation). Not too shabby, right?

As the tracks wore on, though, my enthusiasm cooled somewhat. It's a peculiar hip-hop record, in that it often doesn't feel like one at all. This whole affair is usually much closer to slam poetry than hip-hop. I cringe while writing about slam poetry and hip-hop in the same line, as I'm afraid most will think of Saul Williams, and that's the last thing I want to call to mind here. The samples run the gamut from Coleman-esque free jazz loops to Syrian folk song samples. The liner notes even specifically mention a Sean Behling live improv sax sample from a jazz fest in 1974. Lazy cratediggers these guys aren't. Nifty source material aside, it just doesn't work sometimes. The chosen samples delve into the atonal a bit too often, and while that's all well and good on a jazz record, they're not exactly conducive to even, flowing rhymes. There are three emcees on the record, with tracks fairly evenly split between them. I didn't notice a track where more than one appeared. The second and third emcees remind me of Sage Francis and Blueprint, if vague points of reference are needed, and none of the three are particularly distinct. The vocal cadences of each are often stilted to match the lumbering free-jazz breakbeats, and as such, it's not much of a head-nodding record.

Was this worth a dollar? I suppose so. It's got some good samples to check out, even when they're a bit awkward, and on a whole, it felt reasonably fresh compared to a lot of hip-hop I've heard in the past couple of years. I was pleased to hear something different happening production-wise here, but the lackluster emceeing brought it down several notches. So, not great, but not too bad either - and that's harder to find in a blind purchase than you might think.

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