Cappablack's Counterattack

They winged his spirit, and wounded his tongue, but death was slow coming, proclaims a sultry, deep south voice, carefully enunciating every syllable. The message repeats and the intro to Counterattack, the sample-based prologue to the Facades and Skeletons LP, begins. Electronic drums clatter, aided by pitchbend perversion, turntable trickery and an array of obscure samples. Amidst this magpie approach to sound, Awol One is heard to drawl "Cappablack is on the counterattack" three times, as though invoking some great musical force.

Hashim B and his partner in crime Illevin cite this apparent spell-making as a "braggadocian introduction of ourselves which reflects our B-boy background" - and it's this bizarre mixture of styles that makes Cappablack's take on hip-hop so unique. At times their stripped down electronic instrumentals sound like Ableton Live ambient compositions, all avant-garde static and skewed electronica, the next minute they're uprocking B-Boys, working a thudding bassline and some serious groove.

Hashim spills some light on this intriguing juxtaposition when he describes his childhood: forced by his parents to play classical piano, he studied for seven years before taking up electric bass and joining "weird improv bands," as well as more standard fare. He's operated as a producer and promoter within the Japanese hip-hop scene, as well as publishing Fader, a Tokyo-based magazine based in hip-hop but with Wire's encyclopaedic coverage of all things intelligent. Illevin describes a similarly unusual esoteric introduction to hip-hop; "I remember seeing this strange pair of people doing a strange kind of dance on TV for this song, but was absolutely blown away, and tried to search for the record right after that." These unique experiences correlate with Cappablack's perplexing style, and it's from their roots in hip-hop culture that they explore the possibilities of sound. Hashim declares: "I never breakdanced, but hiphop culture is ingrained in me."

Facades and Skeletons is technically Cappablack's second album, having released The State of the Night on cult Japanese label Soupdisk. Their second 12", The Economics EP, was discovered by ~scape label owner and techno-dub producer Pole, who asked them to contribute tracks to a number of ~scape compilations. Facades and Skeletons involved collaboration with two MCs, and although eight of the thirteen tracks are instrumental, the record showcases vocalists who bring entirely unique sounds of their own. Awol One adds bizarre stream of conscious-style rumbles in what Hashim very succinctly describes as a "surreal rap style", whilst Emirp's technically precise Japanese raps flow over the most rhythmically shifting beats.

Though Illevin stresses that Cappablack can only be the two of them and working with other members "would be a different project," the work with these MCs often resulted in the finished song "sounding completely different from the initial beat." Their willingness to take in influences and ideas from a wide variety of sources is what makes Facades and Skeletons such an intriguing body of work.

The 'Counterattack' of the intro seems to be a defence of this unique style and a resistance to the pressures of commercialisation. Illevin defiantly defends both his own work, and the right of art to pay no heed to the demands of others: "For example, Grandmaster Flash and Marley Marl didn't say "I am not going to work with this MC because his voice is too unique." From artists defiantly rooted in a music genre with such a division between the conventional and the experimental, there's something greatly refreshing about this refusal to confirm to formulas. However, Hashim and Illevin are well-versed in all styles of hip-hop and Hashim claims, "I am personally into all types of rappers, so I would be into working with a wide array of people. I'm feeling people like Juelz Santana, Jay-Z, Lil' Flip on the one hand, and people like Ghostface, MF Doom, and Busdriver on the other."

The album's closing track, 'Suikinkutsu', revolves around the echoing sounds of this traditional Japanese garden installation - a small pottery well which produces delicate sounds as water drips into it. The eerie, melancholic notes produced by this instrument were recorded at a garden Hashim visited near his home (entailing a vicious attack from nearby mosquitoes to capture the "beautiful" sounds), and the delicate beats and overdubbed accordion induce a tranquil, dream-like state. Hashim expresses a poetic attachment to these found sounds and their caressing of the brain, identifying "an element of 'memory' attached to field recordings."