Float

As someone who has known about Aesop Rock for the better part of two decades, serving as my introduction to abstract underground hip hop, it's surprising that Float is one of two Aesop records I've never worked fully through. Only his second record and his first album under an independent label, Float plays in a similar tone and with the same height of creativity that would be expected from Aesop Rock across his full discography. The guy hasn't missed his whole recording career; Float is no exception.

Worth noting early on, Float is absolutely packed with songs. There are three short interludes produced by Blockhead who handled the vast majority of the records production, and there are two tracks running at right around two minutes, but otherwise the rest of the record is loaded with full length tracks. That can make Float a challenging album for a few different reasons; not only does this leave a listener generally with a lot to digest, but Aesop Rock isn't a light listen to begin with. His production is often dark and harsh, and his lyrical content is chalk full of abstract and poetic language that makes every song a huge task to digest. Even one of my favorite records of all time, his follow up Labor Days, still reveals new details every time I pick it up and I've listened to it more times than likely any other hip hop record. That makes even a handful of chances to work through Float impossible to process everything accomplished over the sixty-nine minutes.

That shouldn't detract from the quality of the record, however, at least not fully. I don't see Float as bloated necessarily but instead an example of just how overflowing the mind of Aesop Rock is. This isn't just Aesop trying to make a name for himself but instead him working through a dense collection of artistic works that he surely was anticipating sharing with listeners. It would take over a decade for Aesop Rock to have an album clock under an hour, and a decade and a half to clock under fifty minutes. To say that Float is overloaded is effectively to say that any record from him is the same.

Crucially, Float is also not the kind of album without a strong thread throughout. Both Aesop Rock and Blockhead have similar production styles, although Blockhead spends more time with abstract beats whereas Aesop focuses more on experimental forms of traditional boom bap. Songs from Blockhead can utilize funk noise like Commencement, dark strings on Basic Cable, or even odd southern influences on I'll Be OK, but at the same time he's fully capable of nailing a boom bap track with Attention Span (which features an exceptional feature from Cannibal Ox legend Vast Aire.) Aesop can do the same transition with How to be a Carpenter that relies more on horns than beats to create the ambiance of the song. They pair well together and create an album that both freely experiments but also remains centered. It also set the tone for how Aesop would sound going forward on his next record, and would also be the sound he would return to from time to time throughout the rest of his career.

It would be criminal to discuss an Aesop Rock record without discussing his lyrical quality or his phenomenal flow. Both of these elements of his style are legendary for being completely unchallenged, and that didn't develop across his records, it immediately started that way. Aesop can rap at a breakneck pace like none other on songs like Big Bang, provide poetry and observations on songs like 6B Panorama, or take his time with carefully crafted patterns on songs like the aforementioned Basic Cable. His versatility on the microphone is something to behold and no one can compare.

All the pieces are here for a pristine showing from an artist who now has been active nearly a quarter century. Not only has he not slowed down his performances, but he started off with the momentum of icons. It's understandable that the album would be a difficult one to absorb, but it doesn't make it any less captivating for long time fans or those introduced to the underground scene.

Favorite track: Commencement (at the Obedience Academy)