The Busy Signals do not make for normal-fare electronica. Howard W. Hamilton, III (HwH3) is the only permanent member of the Busy Signals, and that's just the beginning of the irony you'll find in the Busy Signals' first full length release.
This album heavily relies on samples, and many of them sound as if they are straight out of lounge jazz of the sixties. Then they are turned on their ear, and made into something modern and full of beat and vigor, true patchwork originality. Each song stands alone as the perfect theme for the mood it represents. You will find yourself thinking of something particular in conjunction with each track.
1. Headphoneworld --
This beginning track was one I was given on Mp3. That led to my urgent search for this album on the store shelves. This song is full of a looped beat and sweet bass line that will make you bob right along with it right away. Flirtation, admiration, aspiration, and a springtime walk right after a rainstorm -- it's all in this one somewhere.
2. I'm So Slippery --
This song features a lovely hum-able lala line in the background, with HwH3's voice singing melody, backed by a sweet unison from Lisa Jansssen. It's an exploration in detachment.
3. Birds on High--
Hawaiian steel starts this out, quickly replaced by electronic blips, joined with popping drums and a wistful HwH3 singing the chorus that will become your refrain every time you're stuck in traffic on a pretty day: "If I could fly like birds on high, I'd be willing to waste more time. I'd kill more time".
4. Clogged Airways--
Horns, early seventies style, set up the mood for this summer-day traveling theme. Nostalgia and optimism shine through.
5. Futon Hopper--
Easily one of my favorite songs from this album, this sampling is complex and beautiful. The lyrics admonish someone for their overly amorous activities, with an echo that suggests it's all sung to the bathroom mirror. Perfect to play before the date you really shouldn't go on.
6.88's and 73's--
At just over a minute and a half long, this sweet small song is a wonderful example of HwH3's ability to conjure up a past musical style and then top it with a dose of modernism.
7. Low on the Foodchain--
Layered lyrics with disturbingly trance-inducing samples, this song includes a soaring backup from Pamela Valfer (of kittycraft).
8. Taxidermy --
Do I hear handclaps? This involves some letter-writing and feeling deceased, all put to a danceable beat, I can't put my finger on why its so loveable, but it is charming.
9. Stormy Stormy Stormy--
Another one under two minutes long, but with instrumentation that alternates between sparse vocal with piccolo or flute and full orchestration. A song for the unappreciated, with the lyric "in a thankless world, it's stormy all the time." Everyone you know wants this one on the mixtape.
10. Long Funnel --
"Now you're walking around, with tombstones in your eyes. You said, 'I'm tired of the booby prize.'"
Lyrically, a little obscure, but still perfect in its own right.
11. Constantly Awesome --
More dancable beats and handclaps, supplemented by a low, sparse guitar and a happy melody that insists someone out there knows exactly what makes HwH3 want to run to the studio and gush.
12. Show me your Gems--
More Hawaiian steel, covered quickly with a Whoville singalong backup to lyrics about the Midwestern Scene, funny and addictive.
13. Ladies and Germs--
A proper closing with real insight into the brains of the operation. Sung from the perspective of an outsider on the inside of it all, touching and true.

The Busy Signals are/is making the future happen by reminding us where we've been and upping the ante, adding things to the mix to make us think about where we could go if we'd just listen more closely.
This album will stand as a shining example for years to come as what can be accomplished by recycling ideas into new art. Current legal industry standards make it near impossible for anything like this to be produced again soon. As long as artists are shut out of sampling by economic factors, they will continue to have to find new ways of expressing their connections to the past. This, however is the most compelling and effective utilization of sampling technology I have witnessed. Alot more listenable than Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life" or some others backed by large wealthy record companies.
Buy it right away and step toward the future.

The follow up release, Pretend Hits, will be available for sale beginning July 11th. Make it a double-cd purchase and buy both Baby's First Beats and the new album. They are drastically different. The new release has less of a pop-psychology-bubblegum-nostalgia and more modern edge bite, less sampling and more featured guests. Every song on Pretend Hits offers a new musical corner to explore. Expect a full review here on Epinions of Pretend Hits the date of release.

Keep a close eye on HwH3 and the Busy Signals, this is a new wave of intelligence in music that you will want to ride, ride, ride.




Recommended: Yes