January 8, 1999
My Vinyl Weighs A Ton
If [a]Jurassic 5[/a] had stretched their debut album over 60 minutes, veiled their tunes behind a scratching blizzard and doused the positivity, it might have sounded like this....
6 / 10
If Jurassic 5 had stretched their debut album over 60 minutes, veiled their tunes behind a scratching blizzard and doused the positivity, it might have sounded like this.
'My Vinyl Weighs A Ton' is a similar melange of deck dexterity, eccentric rhymes and looped, lolloping background noise. But the beast in Peanut Butter Wolf is dissolute, downbeat, and all-too-ready to rip at your jugular if you're lured too close.
As their name suggests, there's a playfulness to Peanut Butter Wolf that is swiftly undercut by more primal instincts. The languid Boogie Down Productions-style beats and block-party atmospherics of 'Caslo' soon give way to a chill wind of Francis Lei strings and sporadic drum shocks on 'Hold Up'. Similarly, each pack member displays their own distinct rhyming style, meaning the raps shift from Pablo's laid-back guru drawl to Zest's appropriately manic babble.
The album's centrepiece is a nine-minute scratch showcase of an army of turntable techs, including the Jurassics' Cut Chemist. Everything from The Beatles to Madonna is cut into the mix, but like so much of the album, it's a maddening cacophony of warm, jazzy breaks and indulgent stylus-abuse. Having this Wolf by the ears really will leave you wary.
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