4 years since the release of his hip-hop debut, Illogic returns with studio album number three, ‘Celestial Clockwork’ produced by Blueprint.
Gone but not forgotten, Illogic toured extensively and appeared on Aesop Rock’s 2001 album ‘Labor Days’, before heaping on his efforts on the tour-only ‘Write to Death.’ of 2003. And is it worth the wait? Well yes, I guess it is.
Lyrical, surreal, philosophical and broadly psychedelic, ‘Celestial Clockwork’ boasts a terse selection of autobiographical stories and intergalactic wisdom that transcends the usual ghetto posturing, and replaces the shameless negativity and violence with ‘lessons in love’. Bluesy, jazzy, folksy and distinctly proggy, the samples and the delivery lean more toward the reflective tracts of DJ Shadow and Kid Koala than they do your Tony Touch or your Eminem, but it’s a frequency that’s tastefully explored. If it helps illustrate the album’s intent any better, standout track, ‘My World’ features a snatch of ‘Across The Universe’ whilst ‘I Wish He Would Make Me’ wraps itself around some stormy, baroque piano, plus an absolutely cracking sample from ‘Sing Praise To The Lord, Hallelujah’ It’s far from dreamy, it’s far from hippy, far from abstract and far from disassociated, but it’s a deep and meditative piece all the same, although I would have preferred it with the anti-bootlegging messages over the top, I have to say. Afterall, it was hardly in keeping with the album’s spiritual shaft.
Based in this world, but rooted firmly in the infinite.