Del The Funky Homosapien - Golden Era CD

Golden Era buy CD music Audio Mixer: Scott Stallone. Photographer: Eden Braunstein.

Golden Era songs 2009 release, a joint effort between Hieroglyphics founder Del The Funky Homosapien and original Artifacts emcee Tame One. The album returns to a time when inventiveness, creativity, funky beats, and above all, lyricism - ruled Hip Hop. Produced entirely by Parallel Thought. Del the Funky Homosapien's PARALLEL UNI-VERSES isn't designed to be a game changer. Rather, it's an attractively familiar and nostalgic album, one that brings to mind the informal collaborations found on early Lyricist Lounge or Def Jux compilations. Instead of sick rhymes, clever punch lines are the album's calling card with lines like "Selling more units than Moon Zappa" (Tame One on "Before This") and "You simians just simulate" (Del on "Special") being representative of the overall flavor. What makes it all worthwhile is how complimentary the aggressive Tame and the laidback Del are, how fun their strutting and swaggering is, and how funky the tracks feel with Drum and Knowledge from the Parallel Thoughts Crew providing a wide variety of throwback vibes. Punchy bass, jittery scratching, and looped xylophone samples make "Flashback" more than your average homage to hip-hop's golden age, although it's not just the Thoughts crew who are responsible as these veteran lyricists can go way back and "get nastier than Blowfly." Eerie beats make "The Franchise" a highlight, sounding like they might have melted off the b-side of some old Mo Wax 12-inch. But it's the druggy closer "Gaining Ground" that really stuns, slinking across the speakers like Pink Floyd and Massive Attack passing spliffs for six minutes. Songs are allowed as much time as they need but the album as a whole is economical and right-sized at 11 tracks. This is highly enjoyable weekend music from the underground, nothing more, nothing less. Personnel: Zac Hendrix (sound effects, scratches).