Solace

hip-hop/experimental/sample collage

A strange one-off project from Earl Sweatshirt (of Odd Future), which he described as “music from when i hit the bottom and found something.” Vibe is appropriately melancholy but hopeful. 10 minutes of shifting sample collage and stream of consciousness rap. This is some of his least showy MCing (and he’s already pretty natural for such a technically capable rapper), but it’s still clear that he’s in control even when he’s drawling and stumbling. Not so heavy on tricky flows and internal rhymes, but memorable phrases and lots of consonance keeps it all very fluid and pleasant to listen to.

This was a youtube rip since it’s not an official release. Track #1 is edited for the few minor FCCs it contains. Track #2 is the original, unedited.

RIYL: Earl Sweatshirt, Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All, Count Bass D, LA beat scene stuff, the wistful moments of Daedelus or Prefuse

1. warbly echoed distant wails, old-timey/lo-fi/filtered, fades to echo and static just before 1:00. warm guitar and shuffling start/stop beat, stream of consciousness reflective raps, echoes out to harpsichord loop around 1:45. then drunken piano, slight drums, grumbling in the background, gives way to drawling stream of consciousness, drunken like the piano but still on point. piano stays, vocals give way to horn shrieks and standup bass notes, piano fades down to environmental sounds just before 5:00, could fade out here if you wanted. if you stay, you get bouncy slow drums, wistful lo-fi waterlogged piano, warm bass. drums eventually leave. becomes sparse electric piano and bells and more vocals around 6:45. some real sun starts to break through around 8:15, buzzy distant melody and clattery loping drums, stays till fade out. 10:00
2. original unedited version. FCCs are mild and rare, totally fine for safe harbor. 10:00