"My name is El-P, I produce and I rap too." - Tuned Mass Damper

Here is the album you have all been waiting for. The buzz on this record has been steadily building since the late days of CoFlow, back when we all thought it was going to be titled "Paincave"; CanOx's "The Cold Vein" was a masterpiece in itself, but that production also whetted our appetite for the first solo effort from the producer, rapper, businessman, entrepeneur and b-boy, the estimable El Producto.

And the verdict is: jeeezus! We've all read reviews where an album is dubbed an 'assault on the senses', but this one lives up to that description in the fullest sense. Eyes pop, ears bleed, everybody dies. If you took hip hop, locked it up, starved it, taunted it for 6 months and then (standing well back) unleashed it on the world, you might expect a result something like "Fantastic Damage". 16 tracks in which El-P takes chaos and carnage and twists them into musical shapes which strain and struggle against the boundaries of the art form. I don't mean this can be mistaken as anything other than hip hop - it wears b-boy credentials for all to see - but not since the heyday of the Bomb Squad have I heard noise alchemised into music with such raw, savage intent. "The Cold Vein" amply illustrated El-P's continued development as a major production force, but that album does not prepare the listener for this. This is stranger than the most abstract, heavier than the most metal, blacker and more claustrophobic than the most industrial. El sums it up on "Truancy":

"This is for kids worried about the apocalypse".

The album opens with the title track. A Sabbath-dirge guitar, tear-stained piano chords and a tremulous sped-up voice lamenting the "last dance" guide us into a treacherous, stuttering beatscape with metallic distorto-scratches from Rhymesayers' DJ Abilities (who operates all turntables here). "Funcrush this" exhorts El, with the kind of rhyme that might result from compressing Burroughs, Dick, and Ballard into a word-grinder, providing endless analytical bemusement for future colonizing alien races.

"Squeejee Man Shooting" follows, a monster-truck-krush-groove, a funk-fest fed on steroids and raw meat in which El muses on his formative days; "tentative decibel, my lifelong prize. I stole part of a track and started to rap." Namechecking Kool Moe Dee but sounding more like a looped rhythmic nightmare from the mind of mid-70's Miles Davis, this cut is sick and proves once again that spelling out the track title (see also Aesop's "Flash Flood") always pays off. That Miles reference is appropriate I think - listen to almost any Def Jux production and then "On The Corner" - angular, discordant, experimental, but crucially still funky as a used diaper.

"Deep Space 9mm" crashes in with a beat reminiscent of a funkier, more streamlined "Fire In Which You Burn" with added "Tomorrow Never Knows" appeal. A lot of what El does on this album suggests a new form of psychedelic hip hop ("Raspberry Fields" anyone?), with sonics flying out of every corner of the speakers like Bush-faced bats on a bad trip. But this is a soundworld in which peace and love are earned through sufferance and are both rare as mutated hen's teeth. The original title is still appropriate, but El makes bleeding ears enjoyable. Don't ask me how, that's his field, not mine.

"Dead Disnee" is a riot, and was written before Dubya's post-9/11 proclamation that Americans should return to work and go to DisneyWorld. El maintains that that is exactly what he plans to do "when the city burns down". Can't get over the sample of the kid's voice on this one - indicative of the blacker-than-black humour running through the whole album. The chorus reminds me a little of Devo-style sloganeering, and the track has a momentum which is almost rock-ist, maybe alluding to El's fondness for Nine Inch Nails and echoing the sampler-punk of groups like Young Gods and Ministry, but with a generous injection of funk.

The guest appearances are well-chosen (of course) and spread out sparingly across the 16 tracks, thankfully avoiding the excesses of solo albums that end up feeling more like compilations. Aesop Rock and Ill Bill make an appearance on "Delorean", a depth-charge banger with snarling electronics and techno-bass blips and bleeps. Aesop summons up a "freeze dried poltergeist, just add water" while Bill gets his "dick sucked in a strip club by cokeheads". The "Suzy Pulled a Pistol" beat makes a reappearance (perhaps indicating that "The Cold Vein" was a diversion in the El-P plan rather than a signpost of things to come. It is possible to trace a direct line from "Little Johnny" and "End to End Burners" to much of the brutalism on display here). Everyone's favourite Sonic, Rob Smith appears during the chorus and over the crunchy beat sandwich of "Truancy", but don't bite too hard - this lunchpack bites back. The paranoid, mega-funky tornado titled "Accidents Don't Happen" features the rantings of Cage and Camu Tao, paints the sky black and dares you to sleep while freedom is pulled out from under your feet: "lock you up, lock you out, we got bugs in the house, we're being monitored, they know we got thugs in the house". Nice cameo from Richard Burton too. "Dr Hell No Vs The Praying Mantus" and "Stepfather Factory" you might know from "Def Jux Presents 2", the former featuring Hendrix-obsessive Vast Aire ("don't make me bite your face, 'cause it ain't like I like the taste"), the latter still an emotional ordeal worth repeating. Mr.Lif and C Rayz Walz appear on the finale "Blood", which is reminiscent of El's "Cold Vein" style, a synth cyclone spiralling upward while the beat keeps our divine intentions anchored. Lif is such a dope MC, everything I hear makes me want that full-length album like, NOW!

Yes, this album bangs fucking hard; no, it isn't a one-dimensional experience. It's a spectrum, and this is well-illustrated by the aformentioned "Stepfather Factory" (I know a lot of you have heard it, and I know a lot of you have been to a similar place - me too) and the relationship post-mortem of "TOJ": "I haven't loved many people, I grew up afraid that I was crazy. and I wish you well, 'cause I see what's good in you, and I'll be goddamned if you can't see that yourself". El deserves props for continually wearing his heart on his sleeve and being unflinchingly honest - one of his great strengths as an MC.

"Fantastic Damage" is HEAVY - pick it up, but you might need some help. Our patience has been fully, generously, rewarded.