AESOP ROCK - None Shall Pass

When it all began, and we're talking about a decade ago now, Aesop Rock was self-producing eccentric EPs that hovered somewhere between hip-hop and jazz. Not for nothing - though not specifically for him - the term avant-hip-hop was coined, an attempt to lend some kind of system to a reality gone haywire. A reality in which rap language served as dialectical expression, but with a musical sophistication that allowed it to bid farewell to the plasticky 80s sounds that had always underpinned hip-hop beats, in favor of music that was more meaningful and less cluttered. Aesop Rock took this path from the very start, rightfully becoming a spokesman and standard-bearer for it alongside a handful of other MCs.

Since those days, since the avant-garde, since the minimal-jazz framework over which the young Aesop Rock intoned his cultural street ballads, a lot of ground has been covered: more albums have come out, more or less defining the character and making him even more influential, among the most influential around. He's also proven capable of flirting with indie-rock, right at the moment when indie-rock itself was putting out a favorable call for cross-contamination. His friendship with John Darnielle was born partly out of this, and it continues to this day, to the point that this latest Aesop Rock album closes with their collaboration.

Coming to "None Shall Pass", it must be said that things have grown more complex. The beats are weightier, melody is pursued with greater consistency, and the cross-contamination of rock and hip-hop has partly reshaped Aesop Rock's stylistic path. Minimal jazz is almost a memory now, replaced by richer, more synthetic beats as the new religion. It must be said that "None Shall Pass" is practically a completist's album, ranging across the American artist's career: capable of starting out old skool with "Keep Off the Lawn", moving on to the killer single "None Shall Pass", and ending up handling his beloved contaminated jazz on "Bring Black Puto" - the track, the only one, most in line with his past.

And within this framework - which, ultimately, is the framework of an entire career - everything else falls into place: there's the featuring appearance by El-P, a lifelong friend and co-producer of half the record, who gives "39 Thieves" his own twist; there's John Darnielle of Mountain Goats joining Aesop Rock on the closing "Coffee"; there are gangsta echoes in the backing track of "No City". Then there are things you wouldn't expect from a paranoiac, namely the more funk-inflected, danceable tracks like "Getaway Car", for instance.

As you can tell, Aesop Rock fills his latest work with everything he has done and may yet do; it never bores, is at times entertaining, and always gets you thinking. The lyrics remain sketches of a society in passing. He's no longer the radical champion of a new low-profile path for rap - he's decidedly more mannerist now, helped along by his friend and producer Blockhead, his personal beatmaker. Once a poet with a penchant for letting only the lyrics stand out, a chronicler of the times over bare-bones beats, Aesop Rock has found himself reinterpreting the role of MC, with all that entails. This is clearly the start of a new chapter, one we'll be following.

For those who have never heard of Aesop Rock, know that he's a protégé of the rapping Beck of "Guero".

To those who know him, that might sound like blasphemy - and it is.

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23/10/2007