Fresh and Complex
Electronic music producer Guillermo Scott Herren has worked under several names, Prefuse 73 being one of them. As P73, Herren released eight full albums as well as four compilation albums beginning in 2001. Herren’s career began while working as a commercial producer for rappers in Atlanta. Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives, his first album, cut up and spliced voices as well as featuring vocals from several MCs. While some of his latest albums have begun to sound slightly dated, P73’s release of Sacrifices proves that he can produce consistently new, fresh sounds, rousing up old fans and new alike with excitement. Recently, P73 has become progressively more interested in using space and depth into his complex productions. The result is 17-tracks of dense beats that shatter into dreamy expanses of emotion. The clean-cut sound does well to evoke a dream-like murky state of being.
“Basinkitarian” is fresh and complex, with intricate use of percussion weaving in and out of the melody, with the space created by gaps and repetition, toying with a melody before transforming it into another sound entirely. “The World is Bigger” begins with a twitchy, heavy beat that relaxes as a small drum line rolls out and Herron evokes a spacey, sleepy feeling. Like falling in and out of sleep, the song tosses and turns between the heavy-footed beat and the airy, twinkling synth notes. “Silver & Gold,” featuring vocals from R&B/soul singer James Tillman is sweet and slow, with a warm ambiance that feels like a classic, familiar summer song that is drawn out and warped across a plane of tumbling beats. P73 highlights his talent for producing a rich, full sound that complements the voice of Tillman perfectly.
P73 has drifted further out from his roots as a hip-hop producer into a glitchy experimental sound. P73 isn’t afraid to walk the line between different sounds, straying from what he’s known for. In that sense, his penchant is his ability to be a chameleon, changing his sound when he feels it’s called for and doing it well. Intersected between hip-hop, electronic, ambient and psychedelia, Sacrifices is a foray into an ambient, serene sound.
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