Review Summary: One of the most Personal albums I have ever heard
When I listen to music I usually associate it with a color. When you look at the album art, you expect to get that exact feeling that’s on the album cover and have it translated into music. Now look onto the album art of Sadistik’s ,
The Balancing Act, you will ask yourself…. How could a hip hop album paint shades of blue and gray in your mind? The only album that could ever paints shades of blue in my mind is
Traced In Air by Cynic. If you took the time to listen to any of these songs on this album and you will find out why the music perfectly matches the album cover.
The number one reason is the fact that Sadistik is using some of Emancipator’s beats to push this album. If you heard of Emancipator then you should know he combines trip hop and post-rock into his beats to create an ethereal atmosphere, so going into this album you know that the beats is going to be more than loops. The music itself could be a standalone song which some of the beats on this album is on Emancipator’s debut album. You will sounds ranging from; piano arpeggios, melodic guitar lines, down tuned metal riffs, female trip hop vocals, trumpets, and harmonicas. Another producer of the album goes by the name of Kid Called Computer, who also dabbles in trip hop.
Don’t get me wrong; while the instrumentals are impressive itself, Sadistik is delivering a lot of the lyrical forefront. Sadistik’s flow is most comparable to Slug. The way he works around the beats is awe inspiring. He pulls out multiple different flows throughout each song as if he was ADD; it helps keep the song interesting to see what he is going to pull off next. Sadistik is one of the most personal rappers I have ever heard, it is like he is putting his entire story of his life into this one album. His lyrics are drenched in Melancholy where he writes on personal touchy subjects like his faith and his past relationships. From Memento Mori:
“Every single night I pray my letters form a kiss
And it blows through the wind until it rests upon her lips
A metamorphosis that the butterflies imagine
In undecided fashion when weather storms emit
She settles scores with this and I just sit enchanted
As fireflies dance until her wish is granted
I listen frantic to melodies of heartbreak
It feels so temporary but she's telling me its always
I'd die in hell so my angel's not alone
And I'd swim inside her blood for a fatal drop of hope
Just to prove our engagements are soluble
and dance to the chorus when the rain hits the solitude
And breaks into molecules, that’s her
Another piece of me that feels but can't hurt
I stand firm, in this apocalyptic breeze
Until I finally fall apart and then my confidence is breached
And I’m gone... and I’m gone...”
This album is hip hop’s answer to winter albums. An album that packs a punch in terms of song structures from the standard verse chorus structure of “Searching For Some Beautiful” to the six minute straight up spit fest of “Absolution” finally to the three part eight minute closer of “The Exception to Everything”. Sadistik reigning from Washington will be turning heads if he continues down this path of ethereal trip hop laden hip hop.
Recomended tracks:
Absolution
Ashes to Ashley (ft. Mac Lethal)
November
