Aesop Rock - "None Shall Pass"

Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass (Definitive Jux 2007)

Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass / Definitive Jux

You would think that the more you are into an artist, the easier it would be to write about them when the opportunity presents itself. Personally, I find it to be tougher. There is this thought that lingers menacingly in the back of my head, peeking out from behind my eyeballs after each line to criticize what I wrote. It is this ridiculous notion that I owe the artist my best work, since they inspired me so greatly with theirs. As if I owe, in this case Ian Bavitz, the same level of quality workmanship that he has given me over the last seven years. Am I doing him justice? Am I being honest with myself at the same time? Why do I even think, number one: Bavitz will ever actually read this? And number two: would ever truly give a shit about my personal opinion? At which point, the next floodgate of doubting questions open up and I start asking myself: does anyone give a shit about my opinion? Why should anyone give a shit about my opinion? Who am I to be criticizing music in the first place? Why am I even a part of this ridiculous, ever-scrutinizing blogosphere? What the hell am I doing with my life? And so on and so on until I end up in the middle of the floor, rocking steadily in the fetal position as the cat curiously stares at me from her cozy perch on the windowsill. It is the sick, ruthless cycle I put myself through nearly every time I write, which is only amplified when it is about an artist I truly admire. And goddamn, all of this inner turmoil for a simple page-and-a-half album review for a self-made website that is barely making a blip on the music critic radar. I could only imagine what must go through the heads of cats like Bavitz who relatively put their soul on wax and spin it for the entire world to judge. Basically, you do it because you have no other choice; you have got to occasionally open that creative faucet and drain those artistic urges or it will drive you mad. Some of us do it by dropping a few of the most idiosyncratic underground rap albums ever produced, some of us do it by obsessively wasting away each and every one of our coveted mornings on a blog with minimal (but very welcomed) readership amongst thousands of near identical ones. At least in the process we are supporting each other’s mania and teetering sanity, whether we know it or not.

But enough about my nonsensical thought processes, let’s get back to the matter at hand: Bavitz, aka Aesop Rock, has got a new album out and the indie music world is salivating for new material from maybe it’s most talented lyricist. Like I am sure most of you were, I was introduced to the NYC emcee by way of 2001’s heavily applauded Labor Days, an album that now stands as perhaps the epitome of emotional underground rap. Truth be told though, it is just another album in his incredible discography to me. I find 2000’s Float on Mush Records, the first proper release following two self-released LPs (Appleseed, Music for Earthworms, neither of which I have had the privilege of hearing), even more rewarding with it’s minimal beat accompaniment letting Bavitz’s never-ending stream of visceral lyrical imagery completely grapple the listener’s ears. And you know what, I wore out 2003’s Bazooka Tooth as well. Granted it was a completely different beast than the previous albums with its incredibly dense production, but nonetheless contained intricately interesting innards. And yep, I was at the record store the day the Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives EP dropped, because I was hella excited not only about the new, increasingly funky and confident music, but about that 88-page lyrical booklet that came in the same packaged. What can I say? I am a big fan of his near impenetrable lyrical flow, imaginative poetic imagery and that intelligent, blue-collar, pissed-off-at-the-world-because-it-is-fucking-insane attitude.

Well that finally brings us to None Shall Pass, Bavitz’s third official full-length for one of underground rap’s defining labels, El-P’s Definitive Jux. Being released nearly six years to the day that Aesop Rock shed a little “Daylight” on the possibilities of indie-rap, None Shall Pass is being strewn from a completely different perspective. Bavitz is not out to find, establish, reveal or defend himself, but to simply make a quality rap album. He has crossed each of those necessary bridges in his highly nitpicked career, and now, as we discussed earlier, he is just re-opening that creative faucet, because creating rap albums as Aesop Rock is purely how he suffices those artistic urges. Now relocated to San Francisco, None Shall Pass was crafted over two years in what is seemingly a more relaxed setting than what I would imagine living in New York is for him. Producer and frequent collaborator Tony Simon, aka Blockhead, is back in abundance, appearing on eight of the fourteen tracks, the most since he steered the boards for Labor Days. Def Jukies El-P, Rob Sonic, Camu Tao, and Cage all make appearances, as well as the Juggaknots’ Breezly Brewin’, DJ Big Wiz (who scratches on nearly every track) and The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle. There is also an abundance of live instrumentation on this album, mostly electric guitar and bass, which is a first for his Aesop’s mostly sample-based back catalogue. Honestly, I have never been much for the combination of electric guitars and rap music, but for the most part, it is utilized and mixed in a much more intriguing manner than past concoctions I have come across. With a heavier emphasis on story telling rather than, in Bavitz’s words “braggadocio”, None Shall Pass displays maturity and creativity without sacrificing one iota of urgency from his quick-tongued baritone.

After a lead-footed opener, which I feel suffers from the thick, almost Rage Against the Machine electric guitar riffs, Blockhead provides his best beat in years for a future classic Aesop Rock song. Carving his way through an almost steel drum keyboard loop, meandering flute wisps, driving kick drum beat, contemplative electric guitar noodling and schizophrenic pitch-shifted vocals, Bavitz does what he does best: spits ridiculously wordy verses with relaxed aggression, enunciating every syllable into an inimitable been-there-done-that flow. The guests start giving their two cents about halfway through; Breezly Brewin’ and Cage provide archetypal tag-team Def Jux verses to the amped “Getaway Car,” while “39 Thieves” is yet another great Aesop-El-P collaboration. Menacingly interweaving a great Bavitz production of late night trumpet coos, an acoustic Spanish guitar loop and Mr. Lif’s sampled vocals, Aes rhymes potently, seemingly propping the listener up for El Producto to swing in and knock out, but it never happens. Not until “Gun for the Whole Family” anyways, which not only features El’s dense, stuttering space-funk production, but a bravado-dripping verse as well. After a quality pairing with maybe Def Jux’s most underrated producing emcee, Rob Sonic, in “Dark Heart News,” comes the most curious collaboration of the album. Very much a kindred spirit to Bavitz, The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle provides ghostly, modulated backing vocals to Aes-Rock’s masterfully odd rhyme flow syncopation on “Coffee.” Darnielle is barely recognizable though until the final minute of the song where his vocals erupt into an almost anthemic coda. It is an odd teaming for sure and even slightly uncomfortable at first, especially with Darnielle’s more effeminate alto completely counteracting Bavitz’s deep-throated baritone, but it works and is more effective with each concurrent listen.

With great artwork provided by Jeremy Fish, who Bavitz collaborated with for a children’s story, None Shall Pass is a complete package. The production, much like the type established on the Fast Cars EP, is a nice middle ground between the resonating sparseness of Labor Days and the intimidating density of Bazooka Tooth. Bavitz’s vocal rhythms remain one of the most idiosyncratic styles in the game, and the lyrical imagery is as potent as ever, though perhaps slightly less visceral. It doesn’t sound as much like he is straight venting through the Aesop Rock moniker as he is utilizing its now-well-established voice to tell the kind of struggling blue collar stories that made Labor Days so relatable. Does it potentially have that same kind of longevity that the 2001 breakthrough has had though? Probably not, but that is somewhat of an unfair comparison being as they were created under such expansively different circumstances. It is a solid album though and certainly another strong entry into Bavitz’s increasingly diverse discography, which is really all you can ask for as a passive listener. And besides, it’s a new Aesop Rock album, and any new material from the never ending lyrical well that is Ian Bavitz’s mind is more than welcomed as far as I am concerned.