Id and Sleeper – “Displacement ” – [Mush]

Thurston Hunger   11/11/2005   CD, Hip Hop

Duo from Lawrence, Kansas. While I’m sure inflatable people at
all the posh clubs are gonna ask to check the iD first, still
please don’t sleep on the Sleeper. He sets up well-camoflauged
beat-traps like he’s channeling SeeFeel, his drum machinery
has got a dark reeling ride to it. Listen to it trip and
stagger on “Entropy.” His production is very akin to the old
curtains-closed-tight-in-the-middle-of-the-day mystery that
used to be prescribed on KFJC’s Sonic Pharmacy. But the
“Chemical Burn” delivered under the counter here is
definitely its own trip. Ironically, “Hungry Ghost” is the
least spectral of the audio holodecks Sleeper conjures up.
On the MiC, iD delivers anger and disapproval along abstract
lines that might not connect on the visceral plane, but
actually run perfectly parallel to the hypnagogic-a-gogo
Sleeper has assembled. Often times iD’s verses get reverbed
or redoubled to add to the headtrip, the sound of his voice
and the counter-percussion it adds is crucial to the effect
here. Whoever selected the few spoken samples from the intro
“Idea” on in did a nice job as well, they often add a trace
of humor to some otherwise austere lyrics that seem to go
down a philosophical rabbit hole chasing the shadow of a
self-flagellating Stoic. Not without self-awareness though
as “Vague” indicates. Experi-meant-all.