Blue Distortion

Add Blue Distortion to the list of “journalists critiquing his first eight bars.” The Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives EP is Aesop Rock’s latest addition to the independent label Definitive Jux’s ever growing collection of mind expanding, eclectic hip hop. We can continue to hear Aesop progress into something new and fresh, following closely to the electronic and obscure sound of Bazooka Tooth. While there are only 7 songs on the EP, it includes an 88-page book highlighting all of Aesop Rock’s lyrics from Float to Fast Cars. The phrase “Now it takes a dancing bear jumping through flaming hoops to even make em buy the god-forsaken single!” from the Daylight EP comes to mind.

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Salvador Dali can be credited for being one of the greatest surrealist artists of all time. One of his accomplishments, Ange Pi-Mesonic, in my opinion, is truly one of his greatest and least praised works as an artist. The title of the picture can be translated as Pi-Mesonic Angel, a very strange yet suitable title. The word meson alludes to a class of elementary subatomic particles that participate in strong interactions, which forms the basis of the painting. This work is vigorous, effectual, and full of energy. It is a depiction of nuclear chaotic forces interacting in perfect unison.

Ange Pi-Mesonic was started in 1957 and completed in 1958. A vast majority of Dali’s pieces are oil on canvas. This illustration is just a little bigger than a regular sheet of paper. He used ink, pencil and a small amount of gouache to complete this piece. The picture may represent a dream of his, as most of his works appear to do. There is no real style association here, but it was labeled as divisionistic art. This does not adequately classify the drawing because divisionism is defined as a sub genre of neoimpressionism in which colors are divided into their components and mechanically arranged so that the eye organizes the shape. The eye cannot organize the shape of this piece, and thus the expectation that there is more than the basis of divisionism at work here. Divisionism, as defined from a scientific view, was a principle studied by Werner Heisenburg. This scientist suggested that matter might have several forms harmoniously coexisting within a single structure. It is strange that a scientific principle can label the work instead of a style of painting such as impressionism or renaissance.

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Score: 9.0

It’s been over 6 long years since the Beastie Boys have graced our CD players and turntables with a new album. It was well worth the wait. What is a review of the Beastie Boys doing on a website about experimental electronic art? Well, in my opinion, Beastie Boys is one of the most experimental groups that I have come across as an avid music listener. Not in a sense of how many snares can you fit into a single bar without it sounding like white noise, but in their mastery of a very diverse group of genres. They can’t be classified; they are the Beastie Boys.

To the 5 Boroughs is somewhat different from every previous release of their’s to date, but they still manage to come with the signature Beastie sound, minus the obvious (vocals). This album is reminiscent of Paul’s Boutique feel and similar to the futuristic, electronic hip hop joints on Hello Nasty. Basically, it’s a good mix of their older and newer hip hop. There is no chilled, jam songs like the album of In Sound From Way Out which was somewhat disappointing.

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