Dr. Octagon

Dr. Octagonecologyst (Dreamworks)
by Tim Creter

Before I begin, I have to warn you, I’m no expert when it comes to electronic music like trance, trip-hop, ambient, etc. However, I do know enough about hip-hop that I can tell what’s good from what’s bad. With that out of the way, I’ll go ahead and critique Dr. Octagon. This is a tasty album of ambient sound effects, synth loops, classical strings, hip-hop beats, spiced up by some rap. It’s the brainchild of Kool Keith, whose rhymes I find actually slow this album down. Though creative and really far out, Keith’s monotone flows interrupt the wild new sounds and delicious scratch work from DJ Q-Bert. Call it progressive rap, ambient-hop or whatever you want, all I know is that it made this suburban white dude feel pretty slick and spaced-out. Also available as a companion to this release is Instrumentalist, which, if you haven’t guessed, is the instrumental version of the album, and the better of the two. Instrumentalist employs a purer form of electronic trip-hop which I’ve grown to like over the years. This is hardcore, underground rap in the creative sense which should be experimented with, and played at night going to or coming from the dance clubs. Dr. Octagon has a prescription for intergalactic, high-tech jams that stands in a class of their own.