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DELTRON 3030
Deltron 3030 (75 Ark)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry
In case you're wondering what producer Dan "The Automator" Nakamura has been up to since he masterminded the brilliant Dr. Octagon CD (with Kool Keith), this proves that, like Potsie on Happy Days claims, he's still got it. Since the Dreamworks release of "Dr. Octagonecologyst" in 1996, Nakamura has mixed, re-mixed, or produced music by The Jon Spencer Blue Explosion, Primal Scream, and The Eels, to name a few. The Automator's San Francisco studio, the Glue Factory, was ground zero for 3030. It's a concept album that opens in the distant future, but not the flying cars/robots everywhere futurism that 80's TV told us that 2000 A.D. would be like (they were a little off, weren't they?). In 3030 Del (the Funky Homosapien) plays a character working for "The Rhyme Federation", who gets fired during the album for calling in sick.
Rather than seeing smart droids inventing things or some X-Files utopia, in the brave new world "everybody wants to be an emcee. Everybody wanna tell ya the meaning of music." Del knows that he is good at what he does, but says "music is there without you or me. We just manipulate." He is at his best with Kid Koala on the turntables, and having a producer that everyone wants to either be like or work with now. The Automator, comes fresh from his project with Prince Paul on The Handsome Boy Modeling School album, and after 75 Ark re-released his Better Tomorrow EP as an LP with extra tracks, you begin to wonder when Nakamura finds time for sleep.
Described as "space age hip hop for the 31st century", this is without doubt one of the strongest albums of Y2K. It goes almost without saying that the production here is virgin tight, and the rhymes are on. Del describes 3030 as a "perfect blend of technology and magic." Are boy bands, diet rock, frat-core, elevator r&b, suburban rap-metal, and midriff-pop/pap extinct in 3030? Are the clown-rappers who write caffeine-free lyrics over music that already has a pointless dance named after it standing in the unemployment line finally? Wouldn't that be something to wish for? "I see where rap can be." says Del.
Blur's Damon Albarn, Sean Lennon, Mr. Lif, G4, and about twenty others make brief guest cameos throughout this record. Albarn travels as "Sir Damien Thorn VII of the Cockfosters Clan, but the brilliant Prince Paul steals the show easily as he invites you to be there for the Fantabulous Rap Extravaganza saying "It's one of those things where: machine versus man, man versus woman, woman versus your mother"
The standout tracks are all over 3030: Positive Contact, Memory Loss, Madness, Time Keeps on Slipping, Battlesong, and Turbulence ("Fuck earth. I wanna live on Mars, so I'm closer to the stars, and farther away from dumb civilization"). With 21 tracks on this CD, I didn't feel myself growing sleepy, even after the pointless National Movie Review. At least they had that instead of Intro to the Intro, or Skit #891. Unlike that last few years worth of hip hop joints, this actually lived up to it's girth, and wasn't a bloated copy of Wu Tang Forever.
There's a palpable paranoia throughout 3030, with Del (as Deltron Zero) stopping to inform you that he is beyond technology, a real human being, who will "never let a computer tell me shit!" If you don't even really listen to hip-hop, or think that ‘yeah, that guy Eminem is kinda good', then you need to find the nearest record shop and grab this CD. Please go to an independent store, because Tower seems to be the 7-11 of music shops--where the lazy flock, who don't mind paying $18.99 for the same album they could get up the street for cheaper than Tower's condescending "Sale Price". If you still aren't convinced, go to the 75 Ark web-site, and see their animated video for the excellent song Virus.
Dr. Octagonecologyst is one of my all-time favorites that I'll put alongside the Beatles, and Pet Sounds albums, and I can't say that this actually tops it, but it gets a very high "A" in my opinion. For what it's worth, I've been listening to 3030 for weeks now.
© 2001 - Jason Thornberry