Eligh – “As They Pass” – [S/r]

abacus   9/5/2012   CD, Hip Hop

Debut solo release originally put out on cassette in 1996 from this Living Legend, Eligh. This is right about the time he moved from LA up to the East Bay and is joined here on a number of tracks by fellow Legends PSC (Luckyiam), Murs and Grouch, as well as some soon to come like Safari/Bicasso and Arata out of Japan. ??Dark, apocalyptic beats set to creepy tone melodies evolve into some more low-key summertime chill grooves for contrast. We get some hard driving, bottom heavy beats and some more glitched, all with a studio focus, not sample heavy, but never redundant and always dynamic. Eloquent off-rhyming and creative lyricism reflect themes of success and lack thereof in the music business, hopes and dreams and ideological turmoil in daily life in the Bay, sociological changes at the dawn of the computer era and a lot of philosophical introspection within Eligh’s abstract,??asymmetrical??phrasing. The multilingual tracks (10, 11, 17) are definitely the highlights, with Arata on 10, Yuki Hara out of Japan on 11, and Kool Savas from Germany on 17 (a track about KALX!). This is a piece of history digitally remastered for our listening pleasure, so hit it! FCC 4, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18