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Aesop Rock “Fast Cars, Danger, Fire & Knives” LP February ‘05
“What’s a troop’s recipe for treacherous times? I tell ‘em fast cars, danger, fire and knives …”
The legion of fans that follow Aesop Rock's every move is ever growing, and next year's 'Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives' EP should win over more to the tribe. The eclectic rhyme-sayer who burst onto the radar with his first album Float, raised the stakes with his universally acclaimed Definitive Jux debut Labor Days, followed it up with the anthemic EP Daylight, and cemented his place as a star in progressive hip-hop with the epic 2003 LP Bazooka Tooth, now drops his most Dangerous and playful project ever with the EP ‘Fast Cars, Danger, Fire & Knives.’ Perfectly straddling the divide between artistic progression and NYC grit, Aesop has constantly evolved over his career, with each release strengthening his song craft and production while continuing to collaborate masterfully with his main-man Blockhead & other brethren. The release of ‘Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives' sees Aesop at the peak of his creativity.
A CD only EP release, the packaging will be a match for the music. The first 20,000 copies will include "The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow", a perfect-bound 80-page book of lyrics spanning his career along with new artwork and photos, committing Aesop's stunning use of language to paper for the first time. If rappers are the new writers, Aesop is a hip-hop laureate that the whole world will finally now be able to testify to.
“It’s tough to legislate when scum tongue down a dinner plate of booze, coke, heroin… I bite the hand that feeds, chew the steak and spit the knuckles back. Stitch him up and give him dap before his brothers rubberneck..” -- Food, clothes, medicine
On “Fast Cars” Aesop exudes a confidence that never interferes with his hunger, over the best production he's ever had, both by himself and with friends such as Blockhead and Rob Sonic. The vitriol and intensity have combined with hooks and song craft to great effect. The bass booms and tracks bang as never before. The punch lines cut, chorus’ swing and narratives spit tales of the battle between cynicism & hope in a modern world filled with contradiction and struggle. The hip-hop super-hero Bazooka Tooth continues his mission to blaze clean the streets, raising his gnarly grin again in the face of false-prophets. Thing is, he’s having a lot of fun this time around, and so will all of us.
Blockhead sets off the EP with the infectious piano-funk of the title track as Aesop dances up all over the song that is clearly one of his strongest of all time. “Number Nine” is an alarm call banger also from Blockhead that is laced with eerily funkadelic soul. “Zodiaccupuncture” is a bounce track featuring blazing word play and an infectious hype-man chorus by CamuTao. “Holy Smokes” finds Aesop musing seriously on his spiritual history and conflicts with the Church over a gothic Blockhead concoction. Rob Sonic provides a space monster head-nodder for “Winners Take All”. Contributions from CamuTao & El-P on “Rickety Rackety” fire up the mayhem on a playful rapid cut where the three MC’s trade quips old-school posse style yielding a fresh & exhaustive classic. The EP is anchored by the anthemic slow-grinding rock of “Food, Clothes, Medicine,” a prescription for mad urban survival & unity.
Over five albums of futurized funk, Aesop Rock has been blowing minds with detail-driven narratives and dexterity defying word play. From the early self-distributed records Music For Earthworms and Apple Seed, his first album Float on Mush Records all the way to his Bazooka Tooth opus his singular voice has filtered tales of Long Island and New York City life through a highly personal lens. And that voice continues to reach out and touch an enormous amount of people with no signs of slowing.
“United we stand ‘til all the parties click. I divide and conquer, cuz frankly I’d rather sit. These are them rat races. Machine or man, sprocket or fat laces..” – Food, Clothes, Medicine
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- PRESS QUOTES -
“Aesop Rock introduced a raw, urgent, intelligent new sound designed to break the monotony of mainstream rap.” –ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
“Aesop’s voice is a rich, flat bass cut with a thin growl; through its resonance, he’s able to explore the variations within a timbre that gives access to a vast emotional range.”- SPIN
"The age of the hip-hop MC as soothsayer and scribe has probably reached its apex in the form of Aesop Rock, whose electric and mind-bending flow is surpassed only by the explosive imagery of his fables." –REMIX
“Bazooka Tooth’s rapid, stiletto-sharp style and grimy detail tagged Aesop as the intelligent, ethical savior of hip-hop, the hero who would right the bling-obsessed genre's moral compass…” – ROCKPILE
"Listening to Aesop Rock is like taking your brain on a futuristic urban hell-ride through pop culture. A brilliantly twisted journey into his psychotic abyss, 'Bazooka Tooth' mesmerizes with its astounding wordplay and constantly morphing beats, building on the underground hip-hop icon's burgeoning legend." - BOSTON HERALD
"Ace Rock is the shit. Always has been. Always will be. His baritone snarl is unmatched. He blasts hip-hop's semantic bar into the ozone with his unique knack for describing things in words you'd never dream of stringing together…He sounds more confident than ever." – FILTER
"Bazooka Tooth's music is mainly his own, and his densely layered squiggles, samples and hardcore percussion are the aural equivalent of graffiti. Never mind that he's got a tongue like the subway's electrified rail and packs more sweet poetry into the album's empty spaces that the L train at rush hour." – PAPER MAGAZINE
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- Track list -
DJX106 Aesop Rock Fast Cars, Danger, Fire & Knives
1. Fast Cars, Danger, Fire & Knives (prod. By Blockhead / additional vocals by Metro of S.A. Smash)
2. Number Nine (prod. By Blockhead)
3. Zodiaccupuncture (prod. By Aesop Rock / additional vocals by CamuTao of S.A. Smash)
4. Holy Smokes (prod. By Blockhead)
5. Winners Take All (prod. By Rob Sonic / additional vocals by Cage)
6. Rickety Rackety feat. CamuTao & El-P (prod. By Aesop Rock)
7. Food, Clothes, Medicine (prod. By Aesop Rock)
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- DISCOGRAPHY -
SOLO:
Aesop Rock APPLESEED LP
Aesop Rock MUSIC FOR EARTHWORMS LP
Aesop Rock FLOAT LP Mush Records
Aesop Rock LABOR DAYS LP Def Jux
Aesop Rock DAYLIGHT EP Def Jux
Aesop Rock BAZOOKA TOOTH LP Def Jux
Aesop Rock "Coma /Maintenance " 12" Def Jux
Aesop Rock "Boombox / Kill Em All Remix / Labor" 12" Def Jux
Aesop Rock "Daylight / Night Light /Nickle Plated Pockets" 12" Def Jux
Aesop Rock “Freeze / Greatest Pac-Man Victory In History” 12” Def Jux
Aesop Rock “Easy / No Jumper Cables” 12” Def Jux
Aesop Rock “Kill ‘Em All” DJX1 Def Jux
Aesop Rock “Dead Pan” DJX2 Def Jux
Aesop Rock “All In All” DJXP3 Def Jux
Aesop Rock “Train Buffers” Urban Renewal Program CD / 12” Chocolate Industries
GUEST:
MURS feat. Aesop Rock “Happy Pills” Def Jux
Vast Aire feat. Aesop Rock, Breez Evahflowin’, Poison Pen, Karniege “Posse Slash” Chocolate Ind.
Mr. Lif feat. Aesop Rock “Success” (Def Jux)
Push Button Objects “Shut Down” 12’/CD Chocolate
Molemen feat. MF Doom, Slug & Aesop “Put Your Quarter Up” 12”/CD Fat Beats
Prefuse 73 feat. MF Doom & Aesop “Blacklist” CD Warp
Atmosphere “Flesh (remix)” 12” Rhymesayers
El-P “Delorian” CD Def Jux
Rjd2 “Final Frontier (remix)” CD Def Jux
Nature Sounds “NUMB” 12” / CD Nature Sounds
S.A. Smash feat. Aesop Rock “Love To F@*k” (Definitive Jux)
Aesop Rock & L.I.F.E. Long "Innercity Hustle” 12" Embedded