5 out of 5

Label: Rhymesayers

Produced by: Blockhead

For a guy who was thinking of retiring, Aesop Rock has had a busy release schedule, across singles and rereleases and co-productions and whole albums… And so, yeah, maybe I (and my wallet) look upon a remix EP with a bit of a sigh, wondering if it’ll be worth it.

“Duh” may’ve been the proper answer.

The Recycling Bin’s three tracks have Blockhead doing mixes of different eras of Aes, from None Shall Pass (Pigs) to Defender (Impossible Kid) to Kodokushi (Spirit World). This thus gives Blockhead three pretty distinct musical styles, flows, and subject matter to work with: old school, slow roll on Pigs; glitchy word streams on Defender; and Kodokushi’s laid back fuzz. That’s interesting enough, but The Recycling Bin is accurately named: these songs are wholly transformed into something else. Blockhead unifies them with swaggery, dense, video-gamey beats, somehow allowing this trio of rather identifiably dissimilar tunes to suddenly go together, and arguably gain some ground: given more dimension; the music focusing us and allowing Rock’s words to have even more weight.

The instrumentals on the B-side underline how much heavy lifting Blockhead is done: these tunes work absolutely on their own, just as funky, just as fun, making it all the more impressive that the artist was able to craft such independently enjoyable tunes that also rather perfectly served the contents of the tracks that’ve been remixed.

The Recycling Bin is not only worth it, it’s a must-own in an Aesop Rock catalogue.