First off, they could have found collaborators in others who, well, weren’t from halfway around the world. They also could’ve simply followed the same path on Best Crisis Ever that they did on their 2005 Quannum debut, Thanks for Asking, a dark, collabo-heavy hip-hop electro album that UR Chicago named “the freshest hip-hop album that’s come out so far [that] year,” SPIN.com described as a mixture of “Eminem and Bjork,” and XLR8R called “the real deal.” Instead, on Best Crisis Ever, the multi-national duo’s second full-length for Quannum, they change up their formula, filling up the guest spots with their own back-and-forth vocals, transporting their own gear and lives from Brooklyn to Sydney, and moving away from hip-hop towards genre-bending pop music. Recorded in both New York City and Australia – and spots in between; “‘Til the Windows Rattle Off,” for example, was recorded and programmed in Malaysia, during some downtime at a festival at which the duo was performing – Best Crisis Ever is an intricately designed, lovingly crafted album, full of unexpected electronic bleeps and blurts nestled alongside Ra’s wordplay, Dana’s warm voice, which is in itself a versatile instrument that adds an alluring depth and charm to Ra’s complex, detailed production. The two play off one another: when Ra uses sparser beats, the richness of Dana’s vocals, the way she layers and develops her harmonies, fills in the space between, never overshadowing, always complementing, like on “Let’s RIP the Town Up,” the hard-edged song that balances quick, machine-gun percussion with truly singable, stick-in-your-head hooks. Similarly, on tracks like “Under Control,” “Big Adventures” and album standout “Crazy Crazy Insane,” Dana and Ra’s melodies twist and swirl with chords and the good-natured clamor of the production beneath. There’s a lightness here at times, found from days spent in the Southern Hemisphere, perhaps, but this is no beach record. “The Dark and Bittersweet End,” and “The Tradeoff” – two of the Brooklyn tracks that made the final cut – have a sinister edge to them, and their cover of REM’s “Swan Swan H,” a song Ra remembers obsessing over in summer camp, turns the soft, sad original into a haunting trip-hop masterpiece. Taking a cue from progressive artists like Gnarls Barkley, Santigold, Gwen Stefani, Aesop Rock, Little Jackie, MIA, Janelle Monae, and Kanye West, ApSci blend elements from electronica, pop, hip-hop and R&B into a kind of quirky electro-pop that has appeal to everyone from mainstream radio listeners to underground heads chasing the latest beat. If this is the next generation of pop music, ApSci can only be considered one of its brightest new faces.| |
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