Third Sight: Symbionese Liberation Album
Disgruntled

Obviously it's been a while since Third Sight's 1998 album The Golden Shower Hour. Despite the lengthy interval, the group still consists of D-Styles (former Invisibl Skratch Piklz member), Dufunk, and Jihad, even if guests share production (Ricci Rucker, Mr. Henshaw, etc.) and MC (MF Grimm, Azeem, Insomniac, etc.) duties this time out.

First things first: what's the explanation behind Third Sight's adoption of The Symbionese Liberation Army's Naga symbol (the seven-headed snake)? In accompanying text, Jihad draws a parallel between the multi-racial membership of the American terrorist group ('symbionese' comes from 'symbiosis' and stands for the harmonious partnership of dissimilar bodies and organisms) and Third Sight, specifically to the diverse talents involved in the making of the album. Jihad notes that his family attended one of the food giveaway programs the SLA demanded as ransom for Patty Hearst but, for the record, the SLA murdered a California superintendent, Dr. Marcus Foster, and wounded his deputy Robert Blackburn, as well as indulged in other acts of violence and robbery during its 1973-75 fugitive days.

Muddled politics notwithstanding, how does the hour-long set hold up otherwise? Fairly well: Third Sight definitely prefers its rides slow and bleak, D-Styles' scratching is predictably strong, and beats are hard and tight (check out the lashing electro-groove in “Hasenpfeffer” and the cool mix of shuddering string samples, clarinet, and thwacking beats in the sniper narrative “Run”). The SLA theme re-emerges in the curdling opener “Hypothermia” where Jihad's verses reference Hearst's participation in the 1974 bank robbery (“I can take a bitch straight from suburbia / Get her to rob the bank called Hibernia”) over a chicken-scratch guitar loop (the CD sleeve shows the infamous photo image of Hearst wielding an assault rifle at the bank). 

One theme in particular recurs excessively: Third Sight's dissing of wack MCs. Alongside a “Something” string sample and harpsichord playing, Jihad barks “For a sucker MC I'm just plain terror” (“Crawl Space”) and attacks poseurs in “The People vs. The Fake” (“If you like real hip hop then you like this / But if you like pop hop then it's time to slit your wrists”) and “Stop Rapping” (“I hope your kids starve and your ass go broke / Get a day job and stop rappin' the folk”); in his notes, Jihad endorses 'sonic eugenics' to weed out inferior lyricists.

But Third Sight tackles other subjects too: “Will I Get Shot By a Dope Fiend?” decries the fact that too many must worry about mere survival (“Am I goin' to live ‘til next week? / Will I get shot by a dope fiend?”). On the downside, the group exposes an occasional jones for offensive content, the title alone all that's required to suggest the distasteful lyrical flavour of “Harry Scrotum.” Too bad Third Sight chose to end the album so execrably when much of what comes before occupies a higher plane.

April 2006