4 out of 5

Label: Rhymesayers

Producer: Abilities

‘First Born’ was prose over smooth but unique beats, with Eyedea’s battle sensibilities starting to come forth on ‘Oliver Hart’ then dominate the duo’s self-titled release, with Mike Larsen’s way-with-words turning out such madness as ‘Now’ but also capable of doing the props and shout-out thing and allowing his partner’s production to shine.  Between then and 2009’s ‘By the Throat’, Mr. Larsen dropped a couple rock-oriented projects – Face Candy and Carbon Carousel – and that influence has carried over to ‘By the Throat.’  He sings for a good portion of the album and, in true form to his lyrics, which often make light of his looks and lisp to underline a ‘be true to yourself’ mentality, this singing is warts and all, incredibly off-tune at points (the chorus of ‘Spin Cycle’) and rather nasally and thin – not likely to win over many new converts.  However, besides the confidence of the style (and perhaps the implied ‘fuck off’ to over-produced mainstream auto-tuned shite), you haven’t heard something like this before.  It’s not nerdy backpack hip-hop, it’s a man inspired to try different lyrics in different ways, new themes from release to release to match whichever hat(s) Eyedea or he and his partner have decided to wear.  Abilities digs deep for this, not only with some devastating scratches on ‘Junk’ or the subtle mixing on ‘Smile,’ but in helping to maintain a solid groove on ‘Forgive Me for My Synapses’ or ‘Burn Fetish’ without betraying the raw sensibilities of the album.  The lyrics are a bit haunting here, especially viewed through the filter of Eyedea’s death not too long after, songs about death or his brain betraying him a little closer to the surface than the poetics on ‘Born.’  While Larsen makes attempts at some positivity – ‘Spin Cycle’ and the closing title track take a stance against the darkness – it feels a little less impassioned than the sadder or angrier moments.

It’s very rough around the edges and has an improv sense to it at points, Larsen ‘rhyming’ words with themselves or letting his voice break on some of his raps, but it fits the vibe.  It’s also incredibly short, at just over 30 minutes, making your favorite tracks a blissful 1 or 2 minutes before the disc ends and you want another go at it.  It’s a good disc to make your friends scratch their skulls in confusion as to what the hype is about, but if they can sit through it for a spin, chances are they’ll find something to make them want to give it another round…  ‘By the Throat’ is just one of those listens: somewhat polarizing at first, then a chorus or line sticks in your head and you O.D. on that track for a week straight.  Then, suddenly, another song opens up and the process repeats.  It is, of course, too bad that we’ll never get to discover how E&A would’ve morphed beyond this point, but glibness aside, this was a notable way to go out, something unique that pretty surely won’t be matched or repeated for years to come.