3 out of 5

Label: Weightless Recordings

Produced by: Blueprint

For as respected and known as Blueprint seems to be in the industry, or for as established he is with his own imprint and string of releases, the man consistently has to act as his own hype man. That’s not so unusual in general, but I want to separate that slightly from marketing – from getting one’s product ‘out there,’ in whatever sense: ‘Print’s always hustling, essentially, vocally / visually / social-media-ly reminding us that he does production; that he’s been in the business forever; that he’s still slinging rhymes…

I’m a big fan of Blueprint’s, and that hustle is part of his music’s DNA, for sure, and as I’m 0% part of the music industry, I can’t really speak to how much of this is “required,” though I’m sure it’s quite a bit. Unfortunately, as that 0% outsider, I also get to sit here and judge, and I accept my view is skewed by observation bias – I follow ‘Print, so I’m aware of what he’s working on – but I occasionally feel like the artist is pushing a bit too hard on the hype, and that’s it’s almost an ingrained habit for him; that is, maybe the full extent to which he goes isn’t necessary, but it’s just his natural method at this point. This only really impacts the music itself when that attitude infests a majority of the tracks on any given release, but that’s rarely been the case, and ‘Print’s music / flow is otherwise so good – who cares?

While that balance is still in place on Chamber Music II, his mostly-instrumental, 20-years-on followup to the first mostly-instrumental installment, it kinda does a heavy-handed one-two of such expressions right at the outset: the rather cringey ‘Explanation’ opener, which does as it says, and lets us know that Chamber Music is a misunderstood masterpiece of dark shit, and then ‘The Second Chamber,’ one of two tracks on which ‘Print raps, and is essentially a standard “I’ve been here and will keep being here” tune, but isn’t the most deft lyrically, or the most impressive track of the set, casting a pall over the experience. This is mostly mirrored in closer ‘I Believe.’

Elsewhere, Illogic jumps on a track, and The Orphanage (sans Eyedea) returns on a later track; the former song’s open-ended thoughts on being an adult are, again, very familiar, and the latter track essentially necessitates yet more familiar territory of “remember us / we’re still great”. While Slug (part of The Orphanage) has actually gotten much sharper in recent years, with constant releases forcing him to better settle into expressing himself as an elder statesman, and ‘Print’s and Illogic’s verses are also a lot stronger – quicker, more clever – than their other appearances here, my point is that pretty much all the vocal tracks on this disc cover stuff we’ve heard before, and because Chamber Music is intended to have an instrumental focus, it requires the producer to do beats to support lyrics instead, which is, needless to say, a different approach. Still good beats, but a different vibe.

So these are… good songs. We have six others that get the chance to be great.

Back in the early 00s, there was a scene of “groove” music that was kinda hip-hop adjacent electronica. It was funky, and you might find the music filed either in electronic or hip-hop sections in a store. The music of Chamber Music II very much reminds me of that scene, except you get Blueprint’s storied history of production and experience / familiarity with hip-hop elevating his game. This is some of the most playful and exploratory work that he’s done yet, getting truly enjoyable goofy with some horns added in, pushing this towards easy listening jazz except with the most lowdown hip-hop beat. Layer in some subtle keys, toying with melodies in unexpected fashions, and you can understand the narrative of Chamber Music one carried on here: that ‘Print gained fans as a rapper, then confused them with an album like this, which is undeniably hip-hop but, like, enlightened. And focused in a way that modern day genre mixers just can’t do. This still makes the opening “this is so dark” explanation kinda doubly laughable, as the poppiness of these tracks is palpable – i.e. this can be pretty bright and cheery stuff to bop along to – but once you’re in it, you can forgive ‘Print’s hype man habits, as ever, and just enjoy the consistent high quality of his output.