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The RhymeTorrents.com Nerdcore Hip-Hop Compilation, Vols. 1-4 by Various Artists

I guess you could say that I’ve been into Nerdcore Hip-Hop since before I knew what it was, and maybe before it knew what it was (just how long has MC Hawking been dropping phat rhymes, now?). I kept promising myself that I’d put together a collection of the best of the genre and put it on a CD, but the guys at Rhyme Torrents did us all one better by getting almost all the major artists in the genre to contribute songs along with a bunch of MCs and DJs I’ve never heard of, producing in total 4 albums worth of music, an astonishing amount of which is actually decent (and occasionally excellent) listening material.

Nerdcore Hip-Hop, for the uninitiated, is rap about Nerd-friendly topics; programming, gaming (tabletop or video), and the trials and triumphs of being a social outcast are standards. Samples of video game music, science fiction television and movie clips, and synthesized computer voices and sounds are frequent accompaniments. Basically, anything that might get a story on Slashdot is fair game for a Nerdcore artist. Below the fold, I’ll review each of my favorites and least favorites from this four volume collection.

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Venetian Snares - Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz?t

One of my work friends lent me this cd. I’d heard him talk about Aaron Funk of Venetian Snares before (one of his albums is quite poetically titled Winnipeg is a Frozen Shithole), and I had the impression that the music is along the heavy, spastic, drum-and-bass lines, like Aphex Twin or Autechre.
Don’t let the overall genre of Venetian Snares stop you, though. This album was inspired by old movie scores, and it shows on every track. The recipe: Take some free tonality classical music: full string orchestra. Blend in about 50% drum-and-bass. Add a tiny dash of tasteful sampling. No baking required. This cd is amazing. He composes all of his own music, making me think of Aaron Copeland (the atonal Copeland, not the Great American Sellout Composer Copeland) one one track and Holst’s “The Planets” on another. One track begins with a string quartet reminiscent of Ravel’s Quartet in F+. It’s all very brooding and ethereal. I’ve heard plenty of “remixes” of classical music before that usually leave me retching; Funk marries drum-and-bass to the genre perfectly, with the mixing aspects never too overbearing. The cd is entirely instrumental, with the exception of short vocal samples on three tracks, which might be found on some future “Verve: Remixed” compilation.