These days, it’s very hard to please everyone. Instrumental hip-hop artist Scott Herren, a.k.a. Prefuse 73, was originally criticized for almost entirely abandoning the staple of hip-hop—the MC.
Herren responded to critics with defiance by issuing One Word Extinguisher, an album that featured even less rapping than his debut. The album didn’t so much silence critics as convert them, and his ensuing long-player, Surrounded by Silence, was inundated with guest MC’s. This move elicited a second wave of criticism.
With his latest album, Herren seems to be giving in to his fans and critics: Security Screenings features minimal guest artists and absolutely no rapping, resulting in an all-too-familiar album that often rehashes the ideas of his previous works.
Luckily, the album’s failure to innovate doesn’t hamper its listenability. To the contrary, Security Screenings is an intriguing, enjoyable record that certainly flaunts Herren’s many strengths as a producer and a DJ. Screenings is an amalgamation of gritty beats, cool vibraphone and chirping synths pieced together like a late-night journey through FM radio. The rubbery bass line of “Keeping up with Your Quota” and the chopped-up crowd noises of “No Origin” show that Herren’s collaboration with The Books last year really paid off. His colleagues, however, don’t always benefit the album: Four Tet’s guitar fuzz on “Creating Cyclical Headaches” comes off as overbearing, and Babatunde Adebimpe’s ethereal vocals on “Cloud of Thick Smoke and Sleep” seem like an afterthought.
In the end, Security Screenings proves to be aptly titled. Scott Herren’s desire to skirt criticism has left us with an album more concerned about its own security than progression. Nevertheless, Screenings is a decent effort that reminds us why people care about Prefuse 73 in the first place.
