BROAD SHAPE OF THE MINDS, ‘CRAFT OF THE LOST ART’ – LEX RECORDS

Ok this has been around for a bit, but then I always get ‘Shape of the what?’ when I try to drop the group into conversations about what I’m currently listening too, so I think that makes it far game to include them on our review pages.

Produced by Philly-based producer Jneiro Jarel, this is something seriously out there. Perhaps this is why the music doesn’t exactly engage, the raps seem distant, passing over you and rarely engaging you directly, likewise the beats are so abstract that they flow out of your stereo without really confronting you directly.

The group is the brain-child, literally, of Jarel. Featuring Jarel plus Jawwaad, Rocque Won, Panama Black and Dr. Who Dat? All, Panama Black, apart (although I can’t find the biz on him either) are different musicians crafted by Jarel during his upbringing as the son of a roving U.S. Army mother.

What these different personalities serve to deliver is a sprawling, multi-layered and multi faceted hip-hop long player. The varying characters are at one moment creating straight-up jarring hip-hop beats and verses, which then flow into Slum Village / Mos Def Black on Both Sides era, abstract textures, subtle beats and laid back vocals However when you are getting used to this though things go seemingly all pre-war jazz before the time-travel goes into warp speed and tears off into chemical induced science fiction Dr Who melodica.

The meandering structure and multitude of production techniques showcased suggests there are too many ideas trying to get out. This is the detriment of the album as a whole, there are glimpses and moments of true talent that sometimes get lost and have you wishing the whole thing would slow down, focus and explore on what has been discovered. On the flip-side Jarel is taking hip-hop in a whole another direction and his expansive approach suggests that if this is a nearly masterpiece, THE masterpiece will follow in time.

James Griffin