Little Johnny

I love rediscovering CDs I purchased a while ago. This week, I've been on some Company Flow shit after peeping this review that Bol did... I "found" the disc and was amazed at the fact that I finally got full copies of "Patriotism" and "Weight"... fucking stellar shit. Now, I spent the summer of '99 devouring a few albums... The Roots' Things Fall Apart was a big one, and this Co Flow instrumental "concept" disc was another. This was the time when Co Flow was about to split (amicably) and do their separate things... El-P was really coming into his own as a producer, and Def Jux was about to truly take off on the underground, and you could hear that twisted boom bap on this release. Mr. Len had a few tracks he produced on the solo tip, but this was primarily an El Producto show. I don't get the whole "concept" of this... they took crazy pics of some doll with a paper bag on his head living in this "hospitul"... I gather that he was left by his parents, who had some fucked up living (rape/molestation? murder?), and Johnny got shipped to this asylum-type place, put up on pharms and sits in front of the TV, soaking in disgusting visuals and half-brained intelligence. He decides he has had enough and wants to bounce... with the help of Len and El-P. Ooooooooo-kay, you're saying... what can ya do, though. If I have to gather that while listening to shit-hot tracks like "Bee Aware", which has this driving, somber organ/guitar appeal throughout the track, or the synth-madness of "Worker Ant Uprise", I say do the fucking thing. This is one of those discs that will get you high without the use of drink or drug. "Shadows Drown" is one of the hottest licks on the whole album, that looped sound of impending doom... it really has this effect of taking you deep into the depths of some black, dark pool of nothing. Mood music, indeed.

Is this my wish, that El-P and Len get back together? Yes and no. Len is doing his thing, sort of, and El-P don't really need him anyways, but hey those heydays were the shit, right?

PS: Go grab this right now. It came out on Rawkus, so I guess if you dload it, it's no big deal? I dunno, but "World of Garbage" used to get me through a fucking busload of nonsense and drama in life. Fav track off this album.

PS2: I kind of stopped digging the whole El-P sound when Aesop Rock came out. I dug the Def Jux/Co Flow/El-P sound up until then. I just didn't get what the big fuss was over dude. I do like the fact that Def Jux signed Mr. Lif. He's that dude, and that Perceptionists album is mint. Am I wrong?

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