producers: know1, cleo's apartment

7. Breath Of Culture

Babel Section who? Exactly. However once we are mentioning the producer's name, I want to see the expression of recognition on your face. Because we have been telling you about this dude before, and every time we talk about this dude, we also mention, that we mentioned him before. So, get your pencils out: who's Know1? Huh? Come on, you haven't paid attention or made notes?? Damn. Well, again: Know1 is this kid from DeMoines and he's ill. How ill? Well ill enough for us to always especially mention it when he's part of a project we review. And Know is now offering us the Babel Section"Fostering Epoch EP" with an unnamed fellow rhyme smith. This also came out on his crew's Soft Focus imprint, but is not giving us much more information than that. But we don't really need much more information, if we let the music speak for itself.

"Marching 2 Man Army" is a beat operating as the introduction. While on "Balal" the lyrics come on, and the music changes completely. Here the beat is progressing from an ill and complex drum, to more restrained waters, that leave more room for the words. And the words are of a reflective quality, as the thoughts are bouncing through the scenery like Sega's Sonic, not missing out on the chances to spit some punchlines as well. One reason why we enjoy Know1's work is due to him drawing influence and elements from varied sources, giving his beats a variety of styles. Like on "Yon Bai Suru" he is basing the majority of the space on sounds that have an Asian feel. He also understands to relieve the music from a big portion of the weight, as he strips it bare, keeping the details in the back. And on "Hiest Nostalgia" (that should probably read 'heist'), Know is again coming with something completely different, as here strings and a rolling drum are making the track. Lyrically this is going the story telling route, as the two cats are giving us a criminal anecdote.

The Gang Starr samples on "Lifeforce" are fitting thematically, but are too harsh in combination with the small and sad beat. But the drum also seems ill matching at first, however it still works. The samples are also explaining the lyrics, where the emcees appear as Anime superheroes, twisting things though when they also give instructions to a more conscious way of using the autonomic nervous system. This is a very paraphrased description though. The Babel Section is then speaking about a touchy subject with "Terrorism". This however is not just discussing terrorism and the role that religion plays in it, it's also putting the emcees into the position of an actual attack, offering an inside out view. "Breath Of Culture" (the one track not produced by Know1, but by Cleo's Apartment) is discussing the medical value of hip hop, as a stress reliever: "I relax, sit back and breathe it in / [breathing in sound] now I can breath again [pleased sigh] / tension released, at least for now / my anguish is ceased / I'm in peace". Hence in many ways this talks about what hip hop means to the speaker (calling it "our form of meditation"), but also what the speaker can mean to hip hop. The title track "Fostering Epoch" then ends the album, and this gets rather dramatic, with a dominant beat, that's being used for spouting lines that are characterizing the emcees as being divine.

And again Know1 is pleasing us with one of his offers. However we maybe need to do a disclaimer this time: Know1 is good. However his potential might even be bigger than the quality he's already reaching. Maybe the many styles he goes through is preventing that he fine tunes one, his own style. And the equipment he's shackled with is definitely holding back the overall impression we can get from his work. But all of that only makes it the more valuable how much we already enjoy his stuff, that just has something that appeals a lot to us.