Prefuse 73 - New Strategies For Modern Crime Vol. 1 & 2 Prefuse 73

Released: 28/06/2024

The follow-up to 2018's excellentSacrifices, the new album from Prefuse 73 “ AKA the Atlanta-born, New York-based Guillermo Scott Herren “ sees quite a major development in his sound, for while the jazz element in Herren's cross-breed smushing of hip-hop and electronica has for the most part played an occasional minor role, onNew Strategies ¦it's brought fully to the fore. 

A concept album of sorts, which plays like a soundtrack to an imaginary crime film or TV show (song titles here include Clean Up Scene Apprentice' and Wrong Suspect'), the album is a remarkably fluid work that is continually mutating, and in which motifs and passages rarely repeat. It masterfully marries organic Miles Davis-esque experimentalism (thinkBitches Brew) with soundtrack touch points such as John Barry'sThe Persuaders, Lalo Schifrin'sBullitsoundtrack, and US jazz composer Gil Mellé's scores forColumbo,and subtle electronics and vintage synths “ to such as degree that I have no idea what is live played' or sampled. I honestly would have put my money on it being solely the former, so organic-sounding is it, were it not for the press release's mention of the LP's influences including musique concrete ¦ and beat-tape music. All of which, really, is a moot point, for this double LP is undoubtedly Herren's finest achievement, a jaw-dropping masterwork of instrumental electronic hip-hop.