5 out of 5

Label: Fill in the Breaks

Produced by: Ecid

Let’s start here: Ecid is not Atmosphere, or, more specifically, Sean Daly.  There are superficial similarities, being two white guys running indie hip hop labels out of Minnesota, and Ecid’s occasional ex-wife references and stoned/aggressive rap style might sound familiar, but I repeat: Ecid is not atmosphere.

Is anyone saying he was?  Heh, maybe not, but I bring it up because Biograffiti is the main disc in Ecid’s catalogue that brings the comparison to mind, with its focused, instantly head-bobbing beats and lyrical focus that flits between personal stories and observational sneers, drizzled with a cynic’s positivity.  But it’s also, by dint of that direct comparison, where it’s easiest to draw a line and recognize the worlds of difference ‘tween the two, as Biograffiti cycles through its styles and pop influences in a way that Atmosphere’s Ant’s more sampled / old school style doesn’t directly offer.

Ecid has evolved over the years from DIY backpacker to a production maestro to a stylistic synthesizer who’s produced some of the oddest and most jaw-droppingly weird/impressive glitched out beats I’ve heard.  At the Biograffiti point of his career, he’d arrived at something if a middleground, which is why the twin cities connection is especially relevant… but only until the disc digs in and Ecid’s dense compositional chops and oddball imagery punch the Minnesota sound into his own Fill in the Breaks jam.  It doesn’t take long to recognize that you’re listening to something inspired – I mean, the aggression and snark of the opening cut is already a killer, but once Tip Your Server drops, your attentions are slapped, and then throttled into eyes-wide alertness as the rhymes and beats tick on.  The disc is bemusedly halved by a light and poppy sample asking if you’ve gotten the gist by now.  It’s apt.  We hungrily dive back in for the disc’s equally impressive second half.

If there’s something I can say to further differentiate the two rappers (for whatever reasons I pursued that comparison…), it’s that any Ecid disc is a passport to encouraging further Ecid exploration; later Atmosphere albums are richer if you’ve tracked his career – the style is so laid back and confident that it’s almost too easy going for a first taste.  But from any disc in Ecid’s catalogue, I can get hooked.  Biograffiti is, in some regards, more tame than the artist’s other releases – it’s not as vulgar, or weird, or weed-obsessed, making it “accessible” – but accessible is not a dirty word here, it’s the type of accessible that makes the dense and dark beats of the album float to the top of the pack of Ecid’s peers.  Amazing stuff when it came out, and amazing stuff now.