Review Summary: A cool, if unnecessary collection of unreleased Madlib tunes.
Madlib likes to release collections of ***. Everything from Afrobeat to Jazz to Prog has been touched by Lib’s hands. Madlib has released his 11th collection in his Medicine Show series,
Low Budget High-Fi Music. The title is essentially what it is, a bunch of low budget, unreleased music that’s high quality ***. It doesn’t seem to have a theme like past Medicine Show releases, but it’s still good. Among it are a bunch of instrumentals and unreleased Madlib collaborations, including an unreleased Jaylib track and stuff from Frank Nitt and Medaphoar. Simply, a collection of some of Madlib’s best never released work.
Throughout, you can tell this is Madlib through hand through behind the boards. The fuzzed-out samples, the jazzy basslines, the rolling piano and abrasive electronics. All of it is present here. He adds a few new production tricks not seen in some of his other work, like some Electronica-style keyboards and stripped down minutes of straight samples. The production work is snazzy and entertaining, with many of the beats working in tandem with each other to make a memorable background soundtrack. Some of it is reminiscent of his Quasimoto and Madvillain work.
I wouldn’t say that any single track here is a stand out. Aside from the Jaylib track, which combines heavy drums and bass with nice soulful music, this is all meant to work together as a whole. It’s a perfect soundtrack for browsing the internet or watching a TV show. Instead of paying attention to individual tracks, Madlib seemed to have this all blend together. Certain tracks segue their way into others, whether it’s through connected samples or similar music progressions. Listening to this as individual tracks proved mind-numbing; however, as a soundtrack it proves to be a joyful, head-nodding listen.
Really, I don’t think Madlib had much reason to release
Low Budget High-Fi Music. It doesn’t seem to have a theme like past releases, and it’s just a random collection of tracks. Throughout, it’s a bunch of low budget music reminiscent of his past work. It’s not perfect, and none of the individual tracks stand out. However, it’s a fun release, and worth any record collector’s money. Full of unreleased music,
Low Budget High-Fi Music is a decent, if imperfect release. 3.5/5
