Friday, January 30, 2009

Mumbles - Transformations/Illuminations


LA's Mumbles is among my favorite producers -- his collaboration with Aceyalone on '
A Book of Human Language' stands as one of my favorite hip-hop albums. I'd been trying to get a hold of his 'Transformations/Illuminations' album with no luck -- his first original full-length since 1998 (which was 'ABoHL').

Mumbles apparently went soul-searching abroad, hoping to broaden his scope as an individual and artist -- and some of the collaboration choices on '
Transformations/Illuminations' illustrate this (Aceyalone returns, Cut Chemist, Blu, The Fowler Brothers, a laundry-list of cameos) mah'velously.

I wouldn't say it "tops" '
A Book of Human Language' (which is unrealistic to even ask -- Aceylone & Mumbles are a perfect pair), but this album has affirmed my respect and gratitude for Mumbles' craft. He has an ear for not only what he's producing, but how it affects the song's overall effectiveness and emotion -- in a literal sense, it just sounds fucking good.

Any fan of his past work or those who haven't heard, this album won't fail to impress.




Transformations/Illuminations
+++++++++++
mind the graves



3 comments :

Marcus said...

this is awesome

lessMTVmoreTMV said...

glad you dig it man

def give a book of human language a listen if you haven't heard

Anonymous said...

I´d love to listen to it, if there is a second chance...I came up to mumbles because of his collaboration with Gone Beyond - Duet for Space and Time... and his early Work S.E.V.A. - great stuff. Regards C.