170720ｖｓ嵐#73

On his fourth full-length release, Preparations, Glitch-hop king Guillermo Scott Herren, better known as Prefuse 73, shows that emigrating to Barcelona has not dissociated him from his fountain of sonic inspiration. The former Atlanta, Georgia, phenom continues to blaze a trail for Prefuse that stands distinct from his other projects (Savath & Savalas, Delarosa & Asora, etc.). With contributions from Tobias Lilja, Battles drummer John Stanier, and Secret Machines offshoot School of Seven Bells, Herren crafts a multi-hued, constantly shifting prism of electronic sound that's always propulsive and visceral, but frequently gorgeous in its juxtaposition of atmosphere and angularity. The album was released both on its own and with a bonus disc, as Preparations & Interregnums.

Soon after releasing One Word Extinguisher, his long-awaited second full record as Prefuse 73, Scott Herren delivered another set of recordings to Warp and requested a release. It's easy to see why the label agreed; several of the tracks on this collection of outtakes could have easily made the highlight reel. Besides proving how much talent Scott Herren has sitting around, Extinguished also illustrates that he's a surprisingly good editor. As great as they are, most of these work better on an EP release simply because of their length; ripping through 23 tracks in a half-hour, Herren gives listeners the gist of a simple idea, then cuts out, usually in less than a minute. (Only a few, including the opening "Suite for the Way Things Happen," reveal more than one idea at work)…

Spinning through 29 tracks (+ Bonus track for Japan) in just under 50 minutes, Scott Herren's sixth proper LP as Prefuse 73 offers more of the same musical madness for fans of his no-attention-span cut-ups - and that's a good thing. With remarkably few guests and remarkably few samples (at least recognizable ones), it's basic Prefuse material, but with dozens of ideas and delicious dead ends. Anyone looking for a differentiator between this and recent Prefuse material may look in vain, but there's slightly more electro than hip-hop going on here. Also, as in the past, there are occasional glimpses of his other projects bleeding through. Beginning with "DEC. Machine Funk All ERA's," with its airy introduction and female vocal samples, Herren reels off a series of tracks that switch back and forth between cavernous hip-hop and airy folktronica with vocal samples, all the time spending less than two minutes per cut…

Scott Herren has grown into an iconoclast who resists the ingrained nature of releasing full-length-album statements every two to four years. Instead, during his career he has released several mini-albums, which are good ways to get more music into the market and put less of your reputation on the line. (After all, mainstream music critics need to take LPs seriously, but not EPs or singles.) Security Screenings, which arrived just one year after his last full-length, is light on collaborative tracks (only two) and very light on vocals (none whatsoever, besides a few random samples and the ironic inclusion of the low lights from a Prefuse interviewer who objects to the predominance of vocal tracks on 2005's Surrounded by Silence)…

Following a busy recording year in 2009, Scott Herren focused on collaborative projects in 2010, flexing his production muscles via dates, remixes, or cameos with everyone from Zach Hill to Oneohtrix Point Never to TV on the Radio. The Only She Chapters continues the familial feeling, with a wealth of features for female vocalists, which on the surface makes this Prefuse 73 record sound more like it came from Herren’s Savath & Savalas project. Still, it shows his production style has changed slightly. First, there’s little to no evidence of a hip-hop influence, or even electro for that matter…