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Special Herbs Vol 4 Rar Commando Series Is OftenBut despite the sheer amount of music collected under the Herbs banner-- 10 volumes released in a variety of formats between 2001 and 2005, enough to rival another artists career output-- the series is often discussed as if it were a sketchbook of Dooms production ideas that is less essential than official finished albums like Operation: Doomsday or Madvilliany. On the one hand, the Herbs line mostly act as a compendium of instrumentals Doom produced for both himself and other rappers over the course of his career, from his early 1990s days with Native Tongues satellites KMD to his 21st-century rebirth as monster-loving underground polymath. They offer a chance for anyone to revel in Dooms breadth and inventiveness, to appreciate his head-spinning stylistic shifts as a producer by bringing the beats to the foreground. Make no mistake-- most of these tracks sound plenty finished even in rhyme-less form. And as a document of an underground producers lifes work (so far), the Herbs series is rivaled only Dooms friend and fellow manic archivist Madlib in both scope and completeness. The bonus cuts include a 7 with two slices of lo-fi RB nostalgia, the tense trunk-rattler Constipated Monkey and the richer brass-and-organ 60s fantasia Project Jazz, their lost jukebox 45 quality fitting the old-school vinyl single format perfectly. Theres also a whole disc of unreleased material that ranges from the whimsical, Muppet-sampling Humrush to the standup bass showcase It Sounded like a Roc, though most of the never-before-heard tracks stick to the warm, friendly, jazz-tinged sound of the 90s underground, rather than Dooms harsher psychedelicfuturistic outings. But whatever the package, whether this lavish vinyl collection or the multi-disc mixed CD compilation Nature Sounds released a few years back, the Herbs are an essential buy for 21st-century beat freaks. Doom covers so much ground that it might be a little surprising for those who havent been following his career for the last two decades, with something to please both hip-hop classicists and experimental-leaning b-boys on every disc. Do you miss the strutting Meters-derived funk of 90s hip-hop Find plenty of it here. Or the way producers once shamelessly flipped classic rockRB chestnuts, letting you revel in the original hook with the bonus of a punchy rap beat Well, Doom does his own brand of disco editing on the Doobie Brothers What A Fool Believes on Mandrake. Are you a new-school fan of the tweaked psychedelic beatscapes of the Brainfeeder crew Doom seems anticipate those as well, making the decade-old Herbs feel more up-to-date than you might expect. But much of Dooms instrumental output is varied and listenable enough all on its own, full of gorgeous (the weeping violin on Syrax Gum, the fluttering Spanish-tinged funk guitars of Chrysanthemum Flowers) and often untrammeled melodies courtesy of his original sample sources. Hes equally at home with lusher-than-lush symphonic soul homage and disorienting krautrock-esque noise refashioned into neck-snapping NYC minimalism, a breadth which justifies the Herbs status as stand-alone product. Some tracks offer the kind of antic and hook-heavy funk-collage that once made DJ records, from Steinski to the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, plenty of fun without a rapper in sight. And even the more static and laid-back cuts make for excellent, immersive background music. The luscious detailing and wild sonic change-ups of the Herbs recall a time when people didnt necessarily need an MC to appreciate the intricacies of a killer cut-and-paste job, when many were happy to lose themselves in the head-nodding repetition of a densely layered loop.
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