(original image copyright keturahrae)
Iron Galaxy
Cannibal Ox
The Cold Vein
Definitive Jux : 2001
[listen] | [buy]
The F-Word
Cannibal Ox
The Cold Vein
Definitive Jux : 2001
[listen] | [buy]
Pigeon
Cannibal Ox
The Cold Vein
Definitive Jux : 2001
[listen] | [buy]
Scream Phoenix
Cannibal Ox
The Cold Vein
Definitive Jux : 2001
[listen] | [buy]
I draft these thoughts moments before they'll go live on your screen; old habits don't die, and the truth is that no amount of monastic reflection was going to bring how I feel about Cannibal Ox onto the page. Best to do it in small steps, to drop one foot in front of the other until you find yourself where you want to be. Fuck, how do you begin to write about the kind of album that finds you, a song that sounds at first listen as familiar as it will ten years down the line - the touch of a small, silver volume knob tuned to the secret rhythm of your life?
The Cold Vein has been looking for me for the last six years and made contact just a couple of weeks ago. Thinking on it, none of this would have worked if I hadn't been as lost as I was - just numb enough to look away as it set the line and began to pull me along. First to the record store, where I paid for my first CD in years, and immediately back for the instrumentals on a 12" piece of vinyl that I can't yet use but am promised I someday will.
Since the encounter: twice, three times a day I've switched off shuffle and let The Cold Vein - seventy-five minutes at a listen-through - score my state of mind, discovering connections and themes and meaning in the thick fog of so much reflection.
If El-P ever manages to top his work on this album, then I have found proof of an afterlife. The soundscape is scratchy and well-worn, a low-fi patchwork quilt that wears like the only thing you've got against a city that doesn't care. Vast and Vordul use this canvas like a brick wall, tagging poetry in a million shades of blue and grey, constructing a tale of oppression, love and rebirth; if you've ever lived in New York - if you've ever felt alone - this is a chapter in your life, dog-eared or still to come.
What's the last album that tracked you down?
[Announcements:]
- A new Can Ox album is supposedly due to drop later this year,
- and a well-confirmed El-P solo production (feat. a strong roster of Def Jux tenants and Trent Reznor besides) is out in a couple of weeks.
8 comments:
Dannielynn’s true father is a regular poster at the Sarcastic Idiocy Forum.
http://www.thesif.net/SIF/index.php?
Last Album I tracked down and paid for - Madlibs Shades of Blue
The RJD2 version of 'The F-Word' is a gem that must be heard. I'm pretty sure that it's on one of RJ's 'Gettin Jukie Wit It' mixes...
Incredible track.
I'm going to check out both of these.
Unfortunately, rumor has it that Vast and Vordul have had a falling out with the Def Jux camp, so I wouldn't be holding my breath for a new Can Ox record.
Great selection of tracks there, but I agree, the album really should be experienced from beginning to end.
@jeff: Fuck. Worse for worse, I'll just lift a couple of instrumentals from I'll Sleep When You're Dead and mash them up with some Vast & Vordul a capellas - lo-fi Hip-Hop colorforms!
(If that ever ends up happening, you will find it linked here.)
I would have posted The Cold Vein in its entirety, but it'd make me feel kind of dirty.
When I first heard Cold Vein a few years back, it changed my entire taste in Hip Hop. It gave me an thirst for that gully, underground ish. It is an acquired taste for many, and I tell them to keep up their regular doses. Big ups.
nah, vast and vordul are having trouble... el-p is up for producing the sequal, but he has been saying in interviews it most likely aint happening. which is a shame, yes. i am curious about vast's new solo release though, which was supposed to be dropping about now (don't know which label). but a new can ox is probably not coming. bah.
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