CD review: Fluorescent Black - Anti-Pop Consortium

LOOKING AHEAD: Flourescent Black contains some of the year's most forward-thinking hip-hop.

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You may not have heard of Beans, Earl Blaize, High Priest and M Sayyid, but the quartet that make up New York rap collective Anti-Pop Consortium deserve just as much attention as their chart-topping, headline-grabbing, big name counterparts.

Their self-produced new album Fluorescent Black - a comeback album of sorts after a break of several years following 2002's Arrhythmia - doesn't feature famous producers, massive guest stars, major label backing or a bonafide hit single.

But it'd be a shame for hip-hop fans to bypass it for those reasons, because Anti-Pop Consortium's fourth release contains some of 2009's most forward-thinking hip-hop. Refreshingly, there's not a hint of Auto-Tunes in sight.

It's chock full of Blaize's production fingerprints, with songs based around futuristic synths, sonic squelches and random samples, and Beans, Priest and Sayyid's vocals are clear and concise.

Songs like Volcano, Lay Me Down and Superunfrontable make recent releases by superproducers Timbaland and The Neptunes sound embarrassingly dated.

And it's telling that the album's sole guest spot comes from like-minded British MC Roots Manuva for the album's sparse highlight, NY to Tokyo. They obviously don't think anyone in their hometown is up for it.

Tight, concise and focused, Fluorescent Black is among the year's best hip-hop releases. It's just a shame there haven't been more challengers for the crown.

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