Back again, for the very fifth time! Look what’s finally here – the first Dilated Peoples record in eight years. And still, they were never really gone, were they…? Evidence, who’s released two records and one EP since then, has established himself as a renowned solo-artist, while DJ Babu and Rakaa Iriscience were quite busy, themselves. But when the first forerunner of the new record, the single »Good As Gone«, produced by DJ Premier, was presented this June, it appeared to be somewhat dated, really. It’s a collaboration, which would have been praised to the skies around the turn of the millennium – but in 2014?! C’mon! However, it is a statement, after all: Dilated Peoples are still standing for an uncompromising boom-bap-sound. And when Premo is coming forward with one of his best beats in the last five years (at least), it’s impossible to not fall of it. The following single, »Show Me The Way« together with Aloe Blacc, produced by Jake One, is well pleasing, too, and can be compared to »This Way« with a bit less appeal for the masses. So far so good. Yet, there are large parts of the record which are pretty predictable and monotone, and the spark doesn’t quite want to be ignited, it seems. Let’s just say that Evidence’s solo-records or »Lord Steppington« were much more exciting. Eventually, »Directors Of Photography« arrives at another magical moment at the end, when Alchemist‘s (»L.A. River Drive«) and 9th Wonder‘s („The Bigger Picture“) productions push the album to its actual climax. It’s a conciliatory ending of a record that ranges somewhere among the top 3 in the band’s history.
FaltyDL
In The Wake Of Wolves
Central Processing Unit