I'll Sleep When You're Dead (CD - 2007)

Personnel: Victoria Allen, Joey "JR" Raia, Mr Lif, Hangar 18, Mr. Len, Murs, Rob Sonic, Slug, Tame One, Trent Reznor, Camu Tao (vocals); Kareem Bunton, Matt Sweeney (guitar); Darryl Palumbo, Ikey Owens (keyboards); Wilder Zoby (Moog synthesizer); Atticus Ross (programming); Daniel Kaufman, Mr Dibbs, Big Wix (unknown instrument); Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Aesop Rock, Chan Marshall, Cage , Cedric Bixler-Zavala.

On his highly anticipated release, I'LL SLEEP WHEN YOU'RE DEAD, New York indie rap hero and the man behind Definitive Jux delivers just what rap fans have come to expect--namely, a hodge-podge of space-age, boundary-pushing production wizardry and stream-of-consciousness lyricism laced with paranoid Philip K. Dick-inspired imagery. Most impressive here is how El-P manages to seamlessly fit his futuristic sonic tools into a strictly roots hip-hop format. The end result is a sound more akin to Schooly D and Run DMC than, say, DJ Spooky or Dan the Automator, and as such I'LL SLEEP WHEN YOU'RE DEAD is almost a stylistic throwback--in the same way that STAR WARS was to BUCK ROGERS. El-P proves that he's still the best there is at what he does, though what he does is as hard to pin down as ever. Aesop Rock, Cat Power, the Mars Volta, Cage, and Trent Reznor make up the eclectic guest list. minimize