Who the hell does Stones Throw think they are?!?!
The independent music label returns this month with their second free release of the year—and it’s only February! Chrome Children Vol.2 is the second go-round in the Chrome Children series showcasing the label’s seemingly infinite bench of talent. These guys are better than the ’94 Tarheels.
Musically, this label and its artists are on another planet — literally. The musicianship, instrumentation, and genre-diversity are at an all time high on this album. Almost every other track on the album is an instrumental that evokes every genre from hip-hop and funk to fusion jazz and 80s pop. These instrumental tracks are rhythm section heavy as evidenced by the deliberate drum feel of “Stay With Me” and the cymbal rides of The Jazzicists’ “Marcus, Martin, and Malcolm”. This track was produced by Yesterday’s New Quintet aka Madlib and sounds like an update of the Coltrane-McCoy Tyner-Pharoah Sanders material of the mid-60s. Madlib makes several other appearances including the album’s extraterrestrial opener, “Chrome Dreams”, and the Adult Swim bumps soundtrack, “Selah’s Children”.
The emceeing and vocals on this album are clearly overshadowed (and to a certain extent marginalized) by the music and production, but that is not to say that there aren’t any shining moments. MED gives us a coherent and lyrically legible performance on “Rhymes with an L”. Aloe Blacc’s soul march “Happy Now?” is probably the most inspired track on the album as his lyrics intertwine perfectly with the Fourtet-produced lock-and-step of the high hat and cymbal on yet another percussion-inspired song. Percee P gives what will undoubtedly be the best lyrical performance by an old school emcee on “Reverse Part 2”; this contrasts sharply when The Arabian Prince (haven’t seen this NWA album in a minute) offers an ode to early 1980s electronica (“Strange Life”) where he quips, “Do what you like, and do what you please/like an 80-year old lady tryin’ to do a striptease”. Hilarity.
As for deficiencies, there are few. I wish all music that came out today was this “next” sounding. While the absence of Madvillian on this Stones Throw compilation is criminal at best, the album’s instrumentation and diversity more than make up for the MIA-ness of the metal-faced emcee. Stones Throw will have to satiate the public’s bloodlust for this collabo, …and soon.
At the end of the day, it is unwise to compare Chrome Children Vol.2 to its predecessor. The first installment was really a showcase of the label’s flagship artists (which included several inspired J Dilla tracks), the purpose of which, through the cross-promotion with Adult Swim, was to establish Stones Throw as an indie label to reckon with. That’s not the goal or feel of this album. This album is pure, uncut musical inspiration and innovation—a sonic opus the likes of which are nonexistent today. The goal of this follow up, in this writer’s opinion, is to solidify Stones Throw as a label of the future, because in many ways, this is what the future sounds like. This album is so important that the label didn’t want folks to have an excuse or barrier not to have it—hence the freebie.
This release is no longer available for free download, but don't miss the next one. The empire into which Stones Throw is poised to grow, and the distribution methods by which they are doing so, is worth mentioning as well. With each free release and smart, targeted promotions and partnerships, Stones Throw is turning the record industry on its collective ear.
