Plot Against Theme
label: cathexis

producers: xczircles, trex, the moth, jani5, others.

guests: 2mex, wroc, awol one, tommy v.

year of release: 2002
website: escapingart.com
 
There are several places and locations that are right to listen to this record. A very early morning train moving from a to b. A coffee shop, with you positioned on a sofa and the artists on a stage. It fits everything quiet, open locations and where you got room to breathe and let your mind wander. What then also means, that this music does not fit inc clubs. Playing this in a traffic jam would be ill suited. Simply because there's a certain inner peace in it. Despite the troubled poetry, despite the eerie music.
And this duality is somewhat reflected in the name Escape Artists: an artist's task is to recreate a perfected microcopy of one nucleus part of reality. There's a certain pressure an insecurity of how to accomplish that. Escaping from this task is however trying to escape from why you are. It also bears the threat of becoming narcissist and that your music will always hide parts of its meaning and determination from the listener. That however is also the problem with poetry in general.

tracklisting
1. Permanent Grinn
2. Attics
3. Legendary feat. 2Mex
4. Impermanence
5. Meeting Of The Minds
6. The Story Of Tomorrow
7. Such And Such
8. Monkee Skulls
9. Full Moon, Empty Head
10. She's She feat. Wroc
11. One Man Seesaw
12. Without I Thought Mind
13. Soul Purpose feat. Awol One & Tommy V
14. Hampster Dance
15. Caesar's Ghost
So there we have it: "Plot Against Theme", a record that asks you to listen to the words, as you'd be reading a book. And when your mind wanders off, something the music almost asks you to do, then you will miss important brackets, making you read the paragraph again. The Escape Artists, a multi-some out of LA are not feeding you instant pudding. And their words are hardly reviewed, when you throw them into a section a song. Instead the generalization can be more exact as it doesn't exclude. That's why we resist to call this anything more than complex and poetic rhyming. And it also allows us to also include the guest appearances of notable big names 2Mex on "Legendary" and Awol One and Tommy V on "Soul Purpose" into our description.
The music includes a lot of melancholic vibes, that color the words, and that have us find good words for the producers Xczircles, The Moth and Jani5 (leaving out the odd other here and there). While there's definitely highlights or stand outs: Like "Attics" that's mingling well within the typical LA sound, if there's anything like a typical LA independent sound. The piano of "Impermancence" is as good as the strings on "The Story Of Tomorrow". Taking us in middle aged fairy tale swamps is "One Man Seesaw", while the guitar of "Without I Thought Mind" is ripping us out of any such mushy landscapes. "Hamster Dance" unfortunately doesn't go for the 'can't get out of your head anymore' tune, but instead is something rather harsh and dark and finally with "Caesar's Ghost", you find enough of The Doors' spirit in this and the song before, to then draw the interesting connection of what carried Jim's poetry and these poetic verses.
So listen to this where it makes sense. Actually listen to this also where it doesn't and have the contrast to what's around you give it a different color and odor. Listen to this as the shackles that don't let you go. Listen to this excellent album, after you put down that Nietzsche book.
review: tadah
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