reviews
Mar 2006

The scientist is ready! The Los Angeles native recorded hundreds of songs before selecting the final 12 for his Warners debut album, 'The Audience's Listening'. Cut Chemist's songs have been built with the assistance of thousands of rare, crazy, odd, eccentric and quite often unplaceable samples from other records, a truly global library that has been amassed from his extensive travels and dates back to sometime around 1977.

13 years since the formation of Jurassic 5, there's a new school in session. The first lesson: To call 'The Audience's Listening' a hip-hop album would be to miss the point entirely. The album has allowed Cut Chemist to get back to the root of his DJ self; back into the crates, though these days that means vinyl, CDs and digital files. Bookended by what he would call the more "classic Cut Chemist" styles ('Motivational Speaker' and 'The Audience Is Listening (Theme Song)', the meat in between often leaps into new sonic territory. The Kraftwerkian 'Metrorail Thru Space', or the lushly guitar-driven 'The Garden', recorded in Brazil. The legacy of hip-hop is still a firm root, which might be best evinced on 'What's The Altitude' featuring Hymnal. The song was inspired by the hissy and muffled (yet unbelievably dope) recordings on widely circulated cassette tapes of old-school hip-hop DJ battles, like the 1978 face-off between the L Brothers and the Herculoids. Speaking of battles, it's audible that Cut Chemist has given his all for this project, fighting with his heart and soul.

'The Audience's Listening' is a product of a Los Angeles native who's lived in the bustling metropolis for all of his 33 years. It's what's shaped his sound and diverse outlook, his playfulness and his edge (as camouflaged in sweetness as it may be). It is also evocative of an era when sound enthusiasts put out records for the adventure of it. Using a turntable, mixer and computer to create the songs, it is an homage to all that is musically possible from the fingertips of a gifted DJ and imagineer.



Track listing
1. Motivational Speaker
2. (My 1st) Big Break
3. The Lift
4. The Garden
5. Spat
6. What's The Altitude-Feat. Hymnal
7. Metrorail Thru Space
8. Storm-Feat. Edan & Mr Lif
9. 2266 Cambridge-Feat. Thes One
10. Spoon
11. A Peak In Time
12. The Audience Is Listening