Rhode Island’s AraabMuzik, aka Abraham Orellana, likes to think of himself as some sort of sage. Continuing the instructive theme of 2010′s collaboration with J. Armz, How to Be an MC, is this year’s Instrumental University. In case anyone forgets exactly who is schooling them, Orellana generously drops his signature “You are now listening to AraabMuzik…” Sensuous as that voice is, it comes across as obnoxiously territorial sometimes, especially with all the screams. Admittedly, inflated egos in the hip hop world are as ubiquitous as sampling, and AraabMuzik is a talented enough producer to boast a bit. Instrumental University is exactly what it is intended to be, a solid collection of instrumentals.

AraabMuzik has a few constant and distinctive tools, but his sampling is particularly diverse. Last year’s hypnotic Electronic Dream re-appropriated glitzy saccharine trance by chopping it up, juxtaposing it with dark or driven beats, and accenting it with screams and cascading tinkles. Choosing mediocre, corny techno was brave, and the re-contextualization was impressively successful. Alongside the expected rapid-fire hi-hats, trap-hop bass, and tinkles and screams, Instrumental University uses less adventurous samples. Most prevalent are unrecognizable piano and synth loops, and “Ain’t Mad Acha” uses pretty typical samples of soul. Other material is from Cam’ron, Vado, Lloyd Banks, Fabolous, and Jim Jones. AraabMuzik has an excellent sense of rhythm though, and his beats range from sticky and hard-hitting to mesmerizing and euphoric. It doesn’t matter that the album is solely instrumentals,  the songs stand on their own.

Essentially, the vibe is the same as his past mix-tapes. It’s nearly ecstatic dance music, but there is a darkness lurking beneath the surface. Sometimes AraabMuzik expresses it with angrily aggressive beats, climaxing in screams or screeching tires. Aside from the sexy voice responsible for the “You are now listening to AraabMuzik” and the vocalist in “Ain’t Mad Acha,” there is another use of the female voice in “Rubber Band Stacks”: rhythmic gasps. The voice betrays more pain than pleasure, and adds to the subtly menacing tone. ”Rubber Band Stacks” also features (what sounds like) Alvin and the Chipmunks repeatedly spitting “rubber band stack.” It’s brazenly annoying, hyper-active and abrasive. “Blow Ya Smoke” is as breezy as it gets, chill spacey synth floating over a psychedelic soup of reverb that easily could have been nabbed from an Atlas Sound song.

The last track, “Snapped” is quite lovely. It is the first song that truly actualizes the implicit tension present in most of AraabMuzik’s work. Aimless touches of horn and wisps of lyrics in another language (Spanish?) provide enough atmosphere to showcase the piano. The doleful piano repeats and repeats and resolves itself strikingly conventionally, making no attempts to conceal its sentimentality. What warranted such a melancholy culmination? Is there any intentional connection between the unpleasantly skittish “Rubber Band Stacks” and the conclusion, “Snapped”?

So Instrumental University doesn’t have the cohesion of say, an album of instrumentals by J Dilla or Madlib, but that’s an unfair standard. Obvious is AraabMuzik’s mastery of rhythm, even though his sampling is disappointingly unadventurous. This isn’t really dance music, nor unassuming background music, but would be great to drive to (without traffic).  In other news, AraabMuzik live is intensely gratifying, so his performance at Coachella this year should be worthwhile. At the moment he’s working with Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky on a project called A$VPMUZIK, which will probably be released later this year. All in all, solid but unremarkable.

3 / 5 bars
 

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AraabMUZIK – “Blow Ya Smoke”

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AraabMUZIK – “Snapped”

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AraabMUZIK – “1,2,3 Grind”

Guest post by Tarin F.