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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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| The Opus had a very nice debut album in 2002, and their new one, Breathing Lessons, continues on their trajectory of rich, dark, instrumental hip-hop. Clean but moody, this uses strings and plunging bass with distorted chords over tight drum programming to bring you all you need for your late-night urban needs. If ever there was to be a hip-hop soundtrack to a spooky science fiction film, this would be it. Useful both as deep, haunted beatscapes for freestyle ciphers and for improvising cuts to in the inspired lost hours of a blunted bedroom scratching session, this album is progressive without breaking too many conventions at once, or compromising on fundamental headnodding principles. Quality stuff for the introspective heads, and recommended. - Undercover |
2XLP/Out Of Print