Name: Yes We're Tall - Yes We're Tall
Brand: ARS
SKU: 1123769v1
Price: 3.99 EUR
Availability: InStock

John Fekner City Squad

Idioblast 1983-2004

2LP | 1984 | US | Reissue (Modern Harmonic)

42,99 €*

Incl. VAT plus Shipping Costs

Release: 1984 / US – Reissue

Genre: Hip Hop

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With words as weapons and public infrastructure as his blank slate, John Fekner’s City Squad are always questing for the ineffable, even as they yearn for concrete change. Make no mistake, Idioblast is a serious party where everyone is welcome.

Released in 1984, Idioblast is a lost classic, a future shock narrative ahead of its time, and yet completely of its era, like few artifacts before or since. The cover tips you off from the jump—a crude but effective collage featuring classic Fekner slogans like Toxic Junkie, Growth Decay and Soft Brains Watch The Screen And Buy The Jeans. In an uncanny and tragic coincidence, the very first lyric on the album—“The place to be is on the space shuttle/if you’re brave enough to get on it”—seems to anticipate the Challenger disaster just two years later. But for the most part, the tracks on Idioblast directly reference the concepts that inspired Fekner’s visual art.

Musically, “Rapicasso” utilizes pneumatic pounding with an industrial edge as Fekner equates the great and controversial painter with risk-taking graffiti kids bombing trains and billboards across the city. Art is in a constant state of exploding—forms, paradigms, outdated ideas. Splitting the difference between hip-hop and new wave, the Santaniello-sung “The Beat” is like Thomas Dolby meets Run-DMC and should’ve been a radio staple for at least one sticky summer. It could soundtrack either a couples roller skate or a drug-fueled evening out.

Channeling Fekner’s slogan-stencil aesthetic, “Travelogue The 80’s” is a tour de force reminiscent of Negativland’s experiments in audio culture jamming. As Fekner details, “I grabbed all of the sounds via a shortwave radio picking up transmissions from LaGuardia airport and the TV. I recorded and edited on a Sony Pro Walkman and an Aiwa dual cassette deck.”

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Hip Hop

Hip hop has long been more than simple scratches, looped breaks and MCs celebrating their DJs. Since Kool Herc’s block parties in the mid-1970s, the culture has grown and developed rapidly. Today, graffiti can be found on every corner. Breakdancing and b-boying have long since become a way of life for many. Hip hop music today is defined by an enormous variety. There is something for everyone. The Roots have been thrilling friends of virtuoso live bands for over 20 years. Old warhorses from the 1980s prove that there is no age limit for good rhymes. Exceptional artists like Pharoahe Monch or Homeboy Sandman connect generations thanks to intelligent content and clever wordplay. Many ambitious musicians also hold up the flag of German, French or British rap. There are no limits to the raps: from abstract lyricism to street prose to eloquent storytelling, everything is on offer. And more and more musical styles are influencing the world of hip hop today.

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Hip hop, hip hop or hip hop? Anything that sounds funky is allowed.

Hip hop has never been as diverse as it is today. Labels like Mello Music Group or Redefinition evoke the spirit of the eighties and nineties. They see themselves in the tradition of self-determined record companies like Cold Chillin or Ruthless Records. Chopped Herring Records or Dope Folks have made it their business to dig up old recordings. Progressive styles of hip hop music find a home on independent labels like Stones Throw. German rap has grown up and shaken off the regional barrier. And instrumental hip hop has also played an increasingly important role in the last ten years. Not least thanks to our dear colleagues from Project: Mooncircle, who have pushed this direction massively. We have made it our task to do justice to all these facets of hip hop with our offer. From the classic to the absolute insider tip, we offer everything that has to do with eloquent rhymes or innovative beats. And with our HHV Label, we give established and up-and-coming artists the opportunity to present themselves.

Hip Hop 256 Items

Hip Hop

Hip Hop at HHV: the full range from A to Z

Hip hop, hip hop or hip hop? Anything that sounds funky is allowed.