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manbestfriend: The New Human Is Illegal “As Thomas Morr awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found his label transformed into a giant insect—an Anticon, to be precise.” Alright, it may be a bit of a stretch but, with all due apologies to the Kafka estate, Sole's The New Human Is Illegal does transform Morr Music into Anticon, if only for one release. Props, then, to Morr for broadening the label's trademark melodic electronica style with this radical foray into hip-hop. It's a departure in other respects, too, as it eschews the label's usual pristine production values for a sound that's deliberately rough, as if its guitars were played through some tinny amp and recorded in an underground tunnel with a crappy mic. Sole's rapping is similarly raw in both content and sound. His lyrics express despair over the anti-human state of the world (on “The Devil's A Traveling Man” he asks “How can a man live sober in a world like this?” and on “Numb” defiantly yells “There is no Heaven inside of me”), with conformity, capitalism, war, journalists, yuppies, and religion targets of his diatribes. Sole's delivery is typically a non-stop barrage as he spits out words so fast the lyrics become indecipherable. In fact, the cover design shows text overlapping to a point of unreadability—an apt metaphor for the blurry torrent the words sometimes become. Sonically, voices are often distorted as if run through grimy filters, while chopped, churning beats are overlaid by roller-rink organ (“Idol Victim”), wavering synths (“How To Be Rich and Powerful”), and fuzz guitars (“Great Open Grey”). Perhaps the strongest track musically speaking is “Poor Is Cool” where an undulating male singer provides contrasting counterpoint to Sole's flow. The New Human Is Illegal isn't an easy listen and, in fact, is often an unpleasant and caustic one. But that's exactly the effect that Sole's after in this admittedly self-indulgent yet bold excursion. June 2004
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