Boom Bip - Seed to Sun
MusicMash Rating: not rated yet
Pitchfork Media Rating: 7.3
Boom Bip's Seed to Sun isn't hip-hop. Hip-hop is dirty, concrete, in-your-face visceral, and
reflective of an on-going public discourse. Seed to Sun, which is a mostly instrumental offering,
is tightly enclosed and intensely internal; the sound doesn't attempt to capture the public zeitgeist,
instead preferring to meander through a cryptic inner space in search of slight, fleeting emotions and
repressed memories. At its best, it works as a soundtrack to the prolonged moments of silence that
accompany technological isolation. Yet this isn't another dry, droid-like testament to the dystopia of
post-millennial life. Its focus is generally more human than it is mechanical, and it's more tenderly
emotive than it is dryly disjointed.
Although Seed to Sun is a very personal affair, the music is identifiably derivative. Boom Bip
(aka Bryan Hollon) engages in what seems like incessant genre-hopping; suburban hip-hop, wankish laptop
conceptualism, and cinematic post-rock are all indiscriminately plucked from Boom Bip's musical milieus
and given generous footing on this record. Still, Hollon maintains a consistency throughout by constantly
reinforcing his musical motifs. Looped, barely suppressed voices can be heard throughout, and a high-pitch
ringing sound is never far off, acting as a musical highwire that the various breakbeats and synth lines
cling to. Thematically, the album oscillates between three different moods: the intricate melancholy of
monotony; the broad sweeping attempts to transcend the clutter; and what is perhaps the triumphant failure
of the warring tensions: when Hollon abandons his attempts at transcendence and embraces the playful
possibilities that flutter around the edges of the techno wasteland.
Seed to Sun works best when it's either quirkily repetitive or resigning itself to funky
experimentation. When it attempts to be anthemic and triumphant, it falls flat. "Roads Must Rule,"
which kicks off the album, contains a looping violin sample that comes across as forced, clichéd, and more
than a little similar to disposable soundtrack music that denotes a victorious climax. The circus music
quality of "Newly Weds" wouldn't feel out of place as one of the brief musical interludes on Tom Waits'
Swordfishtrombones, while "U R Here," which follows "Newly Weds," resembles Múm, except with a
juicier hip-hop beat. The static and transposed conversations of "Pulse All Over" are effective if a bit
incidental. The discordant vibe carries itself through the first minute of the next track, "Awaiting an
Accident," before giving way to a smoky, almost gothic beat that sounds something like a Depeche Mode remix.
Hollon also offers a couple of vocal tracks which pop up sporadically throughout the album. "The Unthinkable,"
which features spoken-word artist Buck 65, boasts an ironically bouncy beat. "No matter what, I still can't
sleep/ Everywhere I still see ghost," Buck 65 sings in the chorus, and the song feels like a¤half-...
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