BEANS is a fascinating character. His debut album "Tomorrow Right Now" came out a year back and since that time his life has been a rollercoaster ride spreading his hi-octane vocal gospel with touring partners such as Out Hud (who themselves feature members of !!!), DJ Krush and Prefuse '73 amongst others.
Although billed as something of a stopgap release (including two remixes and an instrumental as well as six new tracks), it's sort-of follow up release, mini-album "Now Soon Someday" is nonetheless worthwhile, too, with Beans' brilliantly-controlled, mad scattershot rhymes in tandem with some stripped-down musical backdrops all making for a satisfying listen.
Indeed, you reviewer finds Beans more attractive than many of the current hip-hop practitioners because (like old skool heroes like Public Enemy and Eric B & Rakim), the usual bitches and ho's bullshit is way down his agenda, with most of his blink-and-you've-lost-the-plot raps concerned with human frailties and our daily struggles to get on in an increasingly precarious world.
Opener "Structure Tone" sets us up nicely. Over minimal bloops and rimshot-led rhythms, Beans sprays his rhymes around like a particularly adept graffiti artist, getting into similarly unlikely crevices en route. It's a disconcerting track, fleshed out by brooding synths and hammer horror organ blasts and is really very effective.
Elsewhere, Beans gets all existential on our ass, with intriguing choons like stripped-down info-tech commentary "Databreaker", and the bassy "Composition In Void", where he chants "existence has become a composition in void" sagely, if a little pessimistically. Then there's the buzzy'n'minimal "Win Or Lose You Lose" where his delivery reminds your reviewer of all three Beastie Boys rolled into one and features one of the more memorable choruses of the year in: "Heat to the beat wearin' a fleece in a sauna." Cookin', you might say.
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Touring partners El-P and Prefuse 73 also get into the game with three remixes in all. Of these, the El-P mix of "Mutescreamer" is probably the best, coming on all cavernous and ambitious musically and Beans' tonsils here tying themselves in incredible granny knots. Prefuse's instrumental versh of "Phreek The Beat", meanwhile, is bright, percussive and a bizarrely soulful exercise to exit with. Neither, though, are as good as "Gold Skull" where Beans swaps his usual hectoring invective for a sarky, sing-song delivery straight form the gut. It's over all too quickly when the track gets dipped in a vat of white noise, but suggests a possible way ahead for his frantic muse.
"Now Soon Someday", then, may not be the full-tilt attack Beans perfected on his debut album, but it's still notable stuff, with even the experiments usually yielding something substantial. Indeed, it's all the prrof you need that Beans is still a tasty, filling snack even between main meals.
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