Prefuse 73
Extinguished
(Warp Records)
Reading back on my review of One Word Extinguisher, one might get the feeling that even at the time I wrote the review, I was having somewhat ambivalent feelings about the CD. While there were definitely moments that I enjoyed, the album as a whole just went on for too long and still loses me about two-thirds of the way through (where I then skip to the stellar closing tracks). When I heard that Scott Herron would be releasing yet another long EP of outtakes from the disc, at first I really didn't even care to hear them. Then, I saw that it was going to be 23 tracks and almost 40 minutes of music.
Despite the somewhat haphazard sequencing and short attention span style of Extinguished, I can actually say that I enjoy it more than the full length. It never gets bogged down as much as that previous disc, and although there are moments and sounds that are recycled from the previous disc, it simply keeps my attention better than the aformentioned. The first track "Suite For The Ways Things Change" opens at almost 5 minutes, but even it is split into 4 parts, jumping from cut-up a flute-driven first part to more of a piano backed chugging ending.
From there, the album goes really spastic, dropping into the short filtered noise of "Tel Aviv's Gravel Toothbrush" to the nearly acapella "Pase Rock's Preestyle." The rest of the release just keeps on jumping, too. "Dubs That Don't Match" is a wildly fluctuating blow-out of pulsing beats and cut-up vocals while "One For The Crime Scene, A Bullet For Your Time" delves into sounds of noir while adding a typical grimy keyboard melody and chunky beats.
Overall, there is very little rhyme of reason to the disc, and just about the time most songs really get going, they finish. As it says, it's more of a release of outtakes and alternate versions than a true EP filled with full songs (although there are some full-length gems as well, like "Robot Snares Got No Cadence Or Balance"). Ranging in time from 15 seconds to 6 minutes, it's definitely a scattershod affair, but because of that it also feels a lot more fun that the somewhat bogged-down previous effort. After the double-dose of Prefuse material this year, I'm sort of hoping he resurrects one of his other pseudonyms for another release (namely Savath And Savalas), and based on the wealth of material that he's been putting out lately (including a tour-only CD), it seems like he has plenty of songs still left to spread around.
Rating: 7.75
