Album Review: Oh No – Dr. No’s Ethiopium (2009)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Potholes
Both of Otis Jackson’s sons have dope beats wired into their DNA, so when an Oh No instrumental project drops, there’s not much doubt that it’s going to wind up in heavy rotation. In this regard, his newest project, the second in Dr. No’s international crate trek, Dr. No’s Ethiopium, doesn’t disappoint. The beats are hard and dusty.
To be a critic for a minute though, the album raises some questions along the journey from first pressing play to the gently whispered goodbye of the final fade out.
First of all, is this it?
No disrespect, but 18 tracks clock in at a grand total of 30 minutes, so if you’re trying to get the most for a limited music budget due to the current economic climate, take note. I appreciate a well crafted beat as much as the next man, but a couple of these joints would be really dope, not to mention a minute or two longer, if there were at least a couple cameos. The Stones Throw bench is deep with talent. Holler at the fam. Use all of your assets, not just the sampler and the crate.
Secondly, did we really leave Turkey?
If you heard Dr. No’s Oxperiment, a couple years ago, then you know the formula for this record: Oh No picks and country and flips its lost gems for the enrichment of our heads. But, if the nation of origin is going to be part of the concept, shouldn’t that extend to the musical product as a whole? Most of the first half of this record sounds like more beats from the last record. Now, they’re still dope, but if we’ve traveled to Ethiopia, shouldn’t there be more local flavor than is immediately evident.
The exception to this is the “The Pain”, which is just so chainless it gives me goose bumps. But, part of what makes it so fresh is that it has a lot of Ethiopian flavor, it’s got that Mulatu Astatke vibe – a steaming cauldron of afro-beat, jazz and a hint of the islands. Now, in all fairness, Ethiopia also has a much different musical tradition than Nigeria or other Western African nations that have been given more exposure to American audiences and this critic, generally speaking, than the Middle Eastern and Islamic influenced Eastern African styles. “Who Doo” and “The Funk” both have a lot of flavor too, but again, they break the mold of the first half of the record, and are unambiguously African in source material.
Part of what bothers me about the tracks that are so similar to the last album isn’t that they are bad beats, but it shows a lack of growth artistically in the interim period between the two projects. Now, Oh No is still way above the pack, but part of what I liked about his ’06 release Exodus into Unheard Rhythms, was how broad a range it had. There were some nice hip hop cuts blended in with fresh takes on jazz, R&B, soul, and everything in between. Then came Oxperiment, and while it was a recipe that Madlib had begun to explore with the Beat Konducta Series, it was hot because no one had really cracked open world music as a source since Timbaland, and the Stones Throw take on it was crazy. There just hadn’t been anything like that before. So maybe the bar is set really high. It’s not like this album is bad, it’s just always a little bit of a letdown when an artist as gifted as Oh No releases a project that is a plateau rather than a step up the mountain.
Now, if this were a longer project, then losing a couple tracks to an artist producing well within the bounds of his comfort zone wouldn’t be a big deal, but the fact that the first several tracks sound like alternate takes from the last joint, then suddenly a 30-minute record is down to like 15-20 minutes, which is not a lot to get for a whole record.
So, to prevent really rambling any further, I’ll conclude with this descriptive cop out. Judged solely on the merits of the beats, this album is a four out of five. But, if you look at the album as a whole, as a concept and a product, as a statement of music from an individual expressing themselves, then it doesn’t score nearly as well, and is a little disappointing.
