i fucking love anticon.

i don't think it can be much more obvious than that. my love is newfound, however - i didn't start enjoying anticon. releases until march of this year - a shameful admission, possibly, but it hasn't been for lack of trying. for years previous, i gave multiple anticon. artists multiple listens, without any of them resonating. why? was the first anticon. artist i listened to, only because the person who first reviewed his sanddollars ep for my college radio station was absolutely smitten with it. needless to say, i was not. but ears mature, thank god, and mine are evidently at the age where acerbic beats, stream-of-consciousness ramblings, and utterly insensible combinations of sounds and words are exactly what the doctor ordered. for years, i had looked at the cLOUDDEAD lp in my record store in wonder - what a strange name for a band, i thought. well, no shit, it's a strange fucking band. to be fair, cLOUDDEAD isn't on anticon, though that seems to be more of an accident than anything else, as all three members of the group (doseone, why?, and odd nosdam) are independently signed to the label. anyway, so cLOUDDEAD's self-titled full length had stared back at me from the shelves of my local record shop, and, finally, earlier this year, i gave in. since then, basically, it's been non-stop. 13 & God, telephone jim jesus (who i'd also been interested in for a while, because of this) - a friend turned me on to sole, (whose recent poly.sci.187 is excellent), subtle (another technically "non-anticon" band featuring doseone and jel, two of anticon's most prominent artists), buck 65 (whose 2006 ep dirty work is available in its entirety for free) - so frequently it seems that anticon. is more than a label - more than the collective that they call themselves, even - anticon. is (dare i say it?) a state of mind. few labels have anticon.'s commitment to genre-busting, to encouraging such dramatic and lucid reimaginings of hip hop.

which brings me to two pieces of "news," called such because they are definitely not, but are to me. the first is that anticon has a podcast, and a bitching one at that. it seems to be updated with no regularity at all - sj esau dropped a mix early in july, and dax pierson (of subtle) did on in april, but before that was a christmas mix, a september one, and two from may 2006 - a collection of unreleased tracks by jel and a pre-album teaser by alias. my limited and irregular internet access means i've only had the chance to download one of the podcasts, and my appetite has been whetted.

the second piece of news has me close to salivating (not just because i haven't eaten lunch) - there's a new telephone jim jesus album coming out! really, i am so fucking excited for this - the track available for DOWNLOAD, "a mouth of fingers," is just as full-bodied and layered as anything off a point too far to astronaut, and is even more exuberant in its complexity. there are times, as a writer, when you are just thrust into the verbal shadows by what others have written on the same topic, and that is the case with anticon.'s description of the work - "a multihued textile of living song that can be admired both for its constituent parts—mini opuses with aural narratives unto themselves—and as a subtly evolving whole." whether TJJ's new album deserves such lauding remains to be seen - anywhere out of the everything doesn't come out until september 25 - a date that is turning into one of the most promising tuesdays of the year.

normally, i hate things that are just available for streaming, but this is most definitely better than nothing -

telephone jim jesus - "a mouth of fingers" from anywhere out of the everything

UPDATE: paper thin walls has "a mouth of fingers" available for download! read the interview here, and enjoy the direct link to the mp3 here.