PREFUSE 73 - Surrounded By Silence

Who's better, Prefuse 73 or Savath & Savalas? This is perhaps a pointless question. First of all because both names conceal one and the same person, American Scott Herren, by now permanently transplanted to Barcelona. Secondly, because the two projects are both fascinating, and profoundly different. "Prefuse is my best friend, Savath & Savalas is my baby," he says, candidly admitting he has no preference between the two. Prefuse is one of the emerging names in both new electronic music and new hip-hop. Savath & Savalas (one album and a long EP under this name in 2004) could almost be described as the pop project, and since Herren never lets a year go by without releasing something bearing his name, it was easy to guess that 2005 would bring the follow-up to "One Word Extinguisher", the acclaimed second Prefuse 73 record released in 2003.

Much more than usual, Herren fills the album with collaborations: rappers, vocalists and other musicians take turns on almost every track. Often a guest is used to make an album more commercially palatable. Here, instead, they're the true foundation of the work. If not its ultimate meaning, then at least the constitutive element on which our man's intuitions rest, first and foremost this fundamental one: Prefuse 73 gives his best when working as part of a team, if not outright in service of others. You may have forgotten the album, but do you remember the delightful "Every Party Has A Winner And A Loser", a little gem on the otherwise uneven debut solo album by Erlend Øye? If that was a genuine case of "Prefuse goes pop" of a kind you won't find on "Surrounded By Silence", it's nonetheless true that Scott Herren must have drawn some lessons from that track. To the loops, to the characteristic blend of strongly rhythmic backing tracks, melodic shards and voices buried in the mix, this time he adds more substantial sung parts, or outright rapping, entrusted to the many guests on this record.

Speaking of guests, it's frustrating to know that collaborations with names like Four Tet or Tunde of TV On The Radio were deliberately left out. Let's hope we'll get to hear them on the next EP (due out in a few months, the man himself assures). The Wu-Tang Clan, on the other hand, is well represented: Ghostface, Masta Killa and GZA all answer the call.

The excellent single "Hide Ya Face", featuring his friend El-P and Ghostface, is a clear example of that futurist rap only too happy to get its hands dirty with electronics. That Herren's roots are firmly planted in hip-hop soil (a bit like DJ Shadow or RJD2, even if he doesn't particularly reference them) is well known, just as it's well known that many see him as the future of a kind of music that, Anticon aside, seemed(s) to be going through a rough patch. Electronic music fans, too, see in him the future of the other genre that has struggled most in recent years: is that telling us something?

In short, it's clear that people expect a sort of messiah from Herren, and this record is certainly very ambitious, and often hits the marks it sets for itself, which is no small thing... Let's also say that these goals seem to be hit above all when, as we said earlier, Prefuse 73 leans toward pop and melody. Not that the instrumentals are weak, mind you, but when vocalists and rappers show up, it's a real party. Aesop Rock is extremely effective on "Sabbatical With Options", as is Claudia Deheza on "Pastel Assassins", while Kazu of Blonde Redhead, on "We Got Our Own Way", ends up singing over a song decidedly more beautiful than her own voice.

But there's better still. For instance on "Morale Crusher", a lightning-fast track barely over a minute long, Beans pulls out of his hat (or more likely out of his baseball cap) a westcoast-style rap flow that even brings Tupac to mind, crafting a track unlike anything heard on the former Antipop Consortium member's solo work. Go dig up the remix of "Mutescreamer" that Herren made for the little New York beanpole: after that, it'll be clear why these two should collaborate more often.

Among the best is also "Pagina Dos", a perfect fusion with Books. Three masters of cut-and-paste create a multifaceted patchwork, a brief synthesis in which the meeting brings out the best qualities of each. "Mantra" features the cubist scat singing of Tyondai Braxton, son of Anthony and radiant indie future with Battles, in one of the most fascinating sketches of the whole record. On "Rain Edit Interlude", Linda Perhacs's "Chimacum Rain" - a gem from the small but hugely cult album "Parallelograms" - is likewise taken apart and reassembled. That should be enough to win you over to this record, no?

One final mention for the seductive closing track, entrusted to another exquisite piece of mutant pop (it's no surprise Herren is a favorite of Beck, and vice versa): it's "And I'm Gone", lit up by the dreamy, distant voice of Trish Keenan, the moody sun around which Broadcast orbit.

The rating is the one you see below, but feel free to add half a point if you're into the genre.

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30/04/2026