Engine

Songs:
1. Fantastic Damage
2. Squeegee Man Shooting
3. Deep Space 9mm
4. Tuned Mass Damper
5. Dead Disnee
6. Delorean
7. Truancy
8. The Nang, the Front, the Bush and the Shit
9. Accidents Don’t Happen
10. Stepfather Factory
11. T.O.J.
12. Dr. Hellno and the Praying Mantus
13. Lazerfaces’ Warning
14. Innocent Leader
15. Constellation Funk
16. Blood

Written and Produced by El-P
Turntables operated by DJ Abilities

Released by Definitve Jux


El-P was working on Fantastic Damage when the planes hit the towers and the Pentagon. It was released eight months later and because he makes a lot of dark, stark rap songs, this album was inevitably labeled ‘post-9/11’ art and all of that. And it was. Fantastic Damage is cold, paranoid music that was good for listening to while you sat in a darkened room, backed into a corner with a gun in your hand waiting for more, even worse shit to go down. On the other hand, it’s deeply unfair to call Fantastic Damage a reaction to 9/11 because El-P was always dark, cold, stark and angry sounding. He grew up in Brooklyn in the 80s so I guess he had his reasons. In fact, the lyrics on Fantastic Damage are far more personal than political. He raps a lot about himself, his past, his music, his record label, and the rap game. But El-P is a protest rapper and he certainly takes swipes at his country’s government, over consumption and the generally sad state of the world. In any case, when I listened to this I didn’t think about terrorism or paranoia; I just loved the music and Fantastic Damage has been one of my favorite rap albums ever since.

Lately, I’ve found that the instrumental tracks are also some of my favorite hip-hop. The instrumentals version was released also in 2002 but I don’t think I fully appreciated it until recently. I’ve always liked El-P’s production style though. A lot. He made the beats on The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox (possibly my favorite ever rap album) and also the beats for Fantastic Damage. And this was in a time when the top underground hip-hop producers like DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist were bragging about how they’ve spent years combing the earth for vinyl and have about 12 million records from which to choose samples and show off their turntable skills. El-P wasn’t like that, though. He wasn’t a crate-digger but instead used samples that he found and happened to like or ones that he made himself on his synths. And Fantastic Damage does use excellent samples. There’s bits of Silver Apples, Mike Oldfield, and David Bowie songs in here and El Producto incorporated these samples into his dark sounds smoothly. To me he’s one of the best sound producers around and his music holds up better today than that of his more technical peers.

El Producto is up there with the best lyricists as well and Fantastic Damage is full of twisted up metaphors and obscured meanings. Usually his point isn’t earth shaking but he does talk about things like his childhood and his career in interesting mind-boggling ways. He doesn’t play around like a hyperactive child with words as much as say, everybody’s favorite white rapper, but he does lay down his simple narratives in unexpected, cryptic ways. Also unlike that other guy, he doesn’t care if his words shock you or not. Of course they sometimes do such as when he spat this classic line about his former affiliation with Rawkus Records..

Personally, I think that would be worse if I was conscious and awake, but it’s got a good ring to it. Anyway, El-P’s later album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead seems to have created a much bigger buzz but Fantastic Damage is where it’s at for me. Just listen..


Deep Space 9mm


Squeegee Man Shooting