HaplessChild's Full Review: Rise Robots Rise by Rise Robots Rise
In case you didn't notice the little blue Advisor stamp above his name, Voxpoptart knows his music. When I was paired with him for MattA75's annual ISYMIYSMY write off, I was both scared to death of having to review something that this prolific reviewer enjoyed, and excited that I knew I would be getting something worth my time. He cordially invited me to check out three albums that were all very interesting, but his description of Rise Robots Rise contained a passage that caught my attention:
"This is panoramic hip-hop (inflected with soul, funk, rock, industrial, and who knows how many flavors) as devised and played by two NYC Jewboys for a Julliard school project."
How could I not want to hear this CD? I mean, really.
I found Rise Robots Rise’s debut without incident on Amazon. After ordering it, I started to do a little digging around as to what I just purchased. I went to the TVT Records website, the label that put out RRR's self titled album. The first thing I see is Lil' Jon grinning at me, and some people screaming "Ya'll get wild with it!" in a manner akin to something the Ying Yang Twins would do. I was very afraid.
What ended up coming to me was as far away from Southern Krunk Rap as one could possibly get.
What is in this album? Everything. A lot of horns, singing girls that remind me of the girl who sang, "It's hard out here for a pimp," in Hustle and Flow, tons of guitar, people cheering, some funk, some jazz, some reggae, some rock, and if you look under the couch you will also find Jimmy Hoffa making an appearance in a special hidden track. Please don't believe that last part. Rise Robots Rise is what might have happened had Anthony Kedis ever written a lyric that was not about a girl or California. They are what might have happened had we all not have been sitting around listening to Kriss Kross or Guns & Roses in 1992 when this album came out. There are a lot of things that 1992 was not ready for, and this CD was one of them, which is why you have probably never heard of Rise until just now.
Joe Mendelson is the vocalist of Rise Robots Rise. He will rhyme about everything from the planets to anti-war sentiment to dealing with love troubles. He is also the guitarist, and his cords are soaked in blues and rock. Ben Nitze is on keyboard and percussion, and Tracy Amos, Paulisa Moorman, and Patricia Joseph are the back up singers you will either loathe or love by the end of the CD. I had to do some digging to come up with those names—almost no one is credited (except for the guest vocalists) anywhere on the CD’s red, white, and scratchy all over booklet.
Rise Robots Rise is a multidimensional listening experience. The album opens with guitar and flows into a beat with a horn section, and continues adding instruments, effects, and everything else they can think of, and then they keep changing it up within every song. RRR rap and sing their way through songs, but always seem to stay at the same level of emotion, which is neither angry nor especially excited. Lyrically they have a lot to say- the songs are heavily laced with social commentary, and compared to the gangsta rap that was appearing when this album was made, Rise Robots Rise seem to come from another planet entirely. Even when dealing with issues such as drugs, the subject is still handled tastefully, and there is no hint of white guys trying to act like they have been killing people in Compton for the past twenty years anywhere on the CD.
Rise Robots Rise is a great choice for people who don’t really like current rap music, but aren’t overly adverse to the poetry and beats offered in hip hop. There is nothing to particularly hate on this album, but hip hop purists will quickly tire of subtlety of the rap paired with the dated sounding guitar and some of the sing-songy choruses. On first play, my boyfriend asked it I was listening to the lost Jamiroquai album. He is a hip hop fan to the key of Saul Williams, The Roots, OutKast, and Dead Prez. He didn’t care for this CD at all, saying, “There was such a mix that it ended up putting me to sleep. I don’t think I would call this rap.” On electric guitar-heavy tracks like Buffalo Wack Child, or tracks that are harmony based like, Talk Is Cheap, I can see his point. This isn’t the CD that you are going to roll down your windows and blast from your car on a Friday night- it is more of a personal listening experience. I found that I enjoyed it better when I was by myself concentrating on the various layers RRR threw into each song. As background music, the CD came off as a blur of too much that didn’t register in my head as anything at all.
While this CD didn’t jump out and grab me on every track like I thought it would, I was not against it. There is nothing that offended me, and it is easy to enjoy the groove on songs like Mars. My biggest issue was waiting for the music to achieve a higher point of emotion. Even when Rise does seem angry, and they are heaving out furious lyrics such as, "Chronicle of a nation in distress, throw up your hands, don't worry, you've been blessed, go ahead and hide the baby under the mattress," from Flowers and Birds, they suddenly seek out balance with a Pink Floydesque breakdown complete with African drumming, and even more guitar and then bring in the back up singers before the listener might stand up and shove their fist into the air or scowl or something.
The rap is very low key, and will sometimes remind you of Shock G (Humpty) from Digital Underground. I read that they boosted Joe’s voice electronically for this CD, so it is hard to judge what he needs to work on and what the computer equipment needs to do for him in the future. During the final track, Zombie Demons, it appears to be his normal speaking voice intertwined with a heavier voice, and it sounds fine, and makes me wish they had just left him alone.
If I Only Knew reminds me of when Anthrax paired with Public Enemy for Bring the Noise until it gets just a little too Saturday Morning Cartoons in its bounciness. This song was covered by Tom Jones. I have no idea why. In this song you swear they are going to just smash something and get it over with, but even as he is yelling, “Tracked me down, mowed down, blood hounds, and now I wonder am I gonna dig a hole ten feet under,” the music takes a quick left and they end up singing in a not-so-angry tone, “If I only knew what I could do to make you happy.”
Somewhere in the struggle to make the perfect well-rounded rap album, I think Rise occasionally threw too many ingredients into the mix too many times. With so many out of the ordinary verses such as, “Explore the craters, I’ll seize you later. Watch out for Martian perpetrators; they’re bigger and twice as fat, blasting through the walls of the settlement,” in the ecological awareness track, Mars, sometimes I wish they had let Joe continue unencumbered, instead of layering over him with more singing and guitar or horn. I enjoyed the incorporation of different drums, jazz, and rock on the first few tracks, but then I realized that nearly every single track brings in the same elements, and sometimes I just don’t need any gravy on my mashed potatoes, ya know? I also felt the female singers ruined some of the tracks. Sometimes you just want them to shut up. On The Pipe Talks To You, however, they sound angelic and perfect singing, “Why have you left us here hanging, fallen from grace?”
Rise Robots Rise have been credited for being a completely incomparable band, and that they bring in so many different styles of music that they have created their own genre. I would agree with those points. However, sometimes adding too many ingredients to the soup works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Many music enthusiasts will smile at the parallels to so many different things in Rise Robots Rise, while some people will wish just one song had picked a theme and stayed there.
You will be continuously surprised with this album- how old it is will surprise you, the violent turns made in the music will surprise you, and the lyrics will surprise you. By the end you will either feel like the kid who just ate too much candy, or you will be a convert to the Rise Robots Rise mission. This is definitely an album worth your time for a listen, because with so many things going on it will mean something different to anyone who plays it. Four stars for originality, diversity, and a great first effort. Give it a try and see what you think! I am glad that I did.
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