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MH-225 The Opus - Breathing Lessons  After locking themselves in their Chicago studio with a mountain of dusty vinyl and two lifetimes worth of musical inspiration, the Opus have finally emerged to deliver Breathing Lessons a mesmerizing collection of reflective, instrumental hip-hop. Using their signature palette of chopped percussion and intricate drum programming as base materials, they expand their compositions, adding layers of strings, detuned piano, analog synths, floor rumbling bass, and reverb to haunting effect. Although the all-too-brief vocal appearance of Lord 360 reminds listeners of their productions for MCs on Rubberoom’s Architechnology and their own 2002 debut First Contact, this release is clearly intent on establishing the Opus as a production duo capable of creating music that stands on its own. |
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| Reviews Summary |
| One of the underground's finest beatmaking tandems - Urb / A fine example of instrumental hip-hop - Exclaim! / Call it good mood music for bad moods - Entertainment Weekly / Quality stuff for the introspective heads, and recommended - Undercover / Nocturnally restful and hauntingly evocative - Igloo |
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| Perhaps best known for their production work on Architechnology from Chicago's Rubberoom, the Opus return with their second album. Breathing Lessons is a dark, brooding instrumental album with one foot firmly planted in hip-hop and the other about to step in a big, steaming pile of drum and bass. The duo of Mr. Echoes and the Isle of Weight begins with sparse drums and add in a little bit of instrumentation and some spacey sounds, coming up with a sound that wouldn't seem out of place amongst Wordsound's ambient hip-hop. But the thing that makes Breathing Lessons most interesting is the sample selection, with the Opus often opting for original sounds like bee-bop gibberish and Kenny G-style sax for "Life's Endless Cycle pt. 3 - Evolutions" sobs and out-of-breath breathing for "Symbiotic" and bursts of manic piano for the first half of "The Strange Adventures of Mr. Happy" followed by warped/reversed samples for the second half. Although the Opus have worked with emcees like Aesop Rock, Murs, and Slug, for Breathing Lessons they forego rappers with the exception of a short verse by Slaughterhouse V's Lord 360 on "Isis". It's unnecessary but unobtrusive. A fine example of instrumental hip-hop. - Exclaim! |
2XLP/Out Of Print