(08.08.06) No-one is absolutely positive where blip hop escaped from. The first piece of blip hop this reviewer came across was the awe inspiring Tried by 12 by East Flatbush Project. The double wax release came out on both Ninja Tune and Chocolate Industries and set the new genre alight as mixers such as Autechre, Funkstörung, Squarepusher, Phoenicia and Richard Devine tried their hand at the fantastic hip hop original. Labels like Skam, Schematic and Chocolate industries had always been flirting with hip hop orientated crunch in their releases, but Tried by 12 went one step further with the full immersion of hip hop and electronica to make something new. Nevertheless, it was not the East Flatbush Project’s pioneering release that made an audience for blip hop, that reward must go to the multitalented Scott Herren AKA Prefuse 73. Prefuse 73 meekly entered the scene on Warp Records but soon exploded with a vast array of appearances on credited label compilations, not to mention his screaming first album: Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives.

Nowadays, blip hop is an established genre with many artists trying to add their own unique spin to the urban computer sound. One label releasing blip hop in the States is Audio8 Recordings. One of the premier artists of the Chicago based imprint is Will Freyman AKA Polyphonic the Verbose. This summer saw Freyman release his latest LP, Abstract Data Ark. Freyman studied classical piano as a child, but as the years passed his interest switched to jazz and then onto urban scene. But how does Freyman fair up in the difficult genre that is blip hop? Is he able to compete with the likes of East Flatbush Project or even Prefuse 73? Has Freyman found his spin on blip hop, a unique viewpoint from which to make the genre his own?

Polyphonic’s style is quite interesting. Freyman flicks from a hip hop centered sound into fields with a much more abstract and ambient tone; blending the sounds as he sees fit. The album starts of well with the mixed up, cut around and sampled in “Container Life #473.” Track two, “Moving On” is a well made and well produced hip-hop track with some great analog plays. “Sun and Moon” is almost like an experiment in how far Freyman can push the sound without losing all aspects of the genre completely. An intriguing hip hop based outing, but cut up by estranging noise and horn blows; a lyrical work drenched and drowned in a fog of computerized sound to make for an engagingly abstract piece. “Commuters Dream of Luke Skywalker” follows, an echoing hip hop track that rises and falls through a maze of blips and bleeps and drops into the lyrical “Land Rovers in the Video.” Many of Freyman’s tracks have a looping uneasiness to them. “Orange Alert Mental Pattern” is an unnerving, atmospheric track that adopts elements from ambient and hip hop to make for dark, mysterious yet beautiful sound. “Machines with Sealed Inputs” is a shaking, shimmering hip hop encounter. The lyrical foundation of the track is distorted and twisted up by technology to create a mirage of sound and song. Glitch and vocals are merged into an aural battle in which neither can be victorious. A great piece. The album ends with “Happy Ending,” a track that embraces many aspects of the blip hop sound, the vocal, the instrumental and the computerized. The piece takes the lyrical, a tribal sound, but submerges it in glitch and digital gravel; a track almost summing up what blip hop is all about.

Polyphonic the Verbose has found his own style in a difficult genre. Freyman takes all the elements of blip hop and pushes and pulls their boundaries to almost breaking point. His sound is much more digital overall, but he never leaves his urban influences behind. Relaxed beats, surreal soundscapes, chopped up lyrics, full on raps and computer noise are Freyman’s tools; all of which he uses to their full extent. Abstract Data Ark is a fine example of what blip hop can be, a very experimental medium that is as playful as it is artistic. This is blip hop made with thought and talent, a blend ultimately resulting in a very good effort.

Abstract Data Ark is out now on Audio8. Buy it at Amazon.com.

Audio8

Polyphonic The Verbose