Of Cities, the sophomore full length from DJ Signify, was made for these times. It begs to be played through long, cold nights. The album also matches up with the current American psyche, capturing paranoia, isolation, and the perverse momentum of hope that propels us forward in the face of those hardships, whether we should or not. Largely instrumental, the record may seem bleak but it is never stagnant, it moves. This album is a ride through a nearly abandoned city at 3 a.m. in late January where the only signs of life are suspicious eyes peeking out through windows as you pass by and the crazed, conspiracy-spouting drunks that leap in front of your car.
The album opens with “The Sickness” and one of the musical motifs of the record is introduced, the motorik beat. In much the same way Kraftwerk, a clear influence on DJ Signify, began their road simulation epic “Autobahn,” “The Sickness” has the feel of a journey starting, car whirring to life, slowly pulling onto the empty street, and, finally, steady beat chugging along. The beat builds, subtly, and then stalls like a vehicle at a red light, ghostly sounds fill up the near silence until the beat comes back in, stronger now, and the journey continues. The second track, “Low Tide” marks the first of two appearances by Aesop Rock [click to read]. The Def Jukie is playing the part of the crazed street evangelist mentioned earlier, and his apocalyptic imagery and broken rhythm fit the role perfectly. He is recounting the last living days of the city that this album inhabits.
At other points DJ Signify uses other vocal samples to vividly convey scenes along the nocturnal ride of this album. “Costume Kids” begins with a few minutes of break beats and haunted house sounds and then a distorted and garbled country vocal rises to the fore of the song like the broadcast of the last radio station operating. On “1993” a piano and drum loop are intermixed with dreamlike harpsichord passages and a vocal sample stating, almost convincingly, “I’m not as crazy as I used to be.” Clearly the radio has finally died and the passenger is now being “entertained” by only his own thoughts.
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But it’s not all darkness. Some tracks are, in fact, downright sexy. “Delight to the Sadist” and “Vanessa” both slink along with trip hop percussion, the former accented with scratches and a throbbing bass, the latter helped along with gentle washes of ambient drone.
The album ends with two great songs broken up by an interlude, one of several on the album, all great. First, there is “Bollywood Babies” which throws together a propulsive drum break with a swirling piano loop and high synth wails to serve as the penultimate moment of this long journey into night. Short breaks in the song reveal muffled speak, what sounds like salutes and laughter and crowd noises, our lone car has met up with the few other remaining survivors. The closing song is the release. Still tense but now moving quickly instead of creeping along, the song recalls NEU! in the way it delivers both a great beat but also an interesting synth melody on top of it.
This is not a perfect record and it probably will not suit the taste of the conventional Hip Hop fan. It relies heavily on older, obscure influences. It is also all of one mood. DJ Signify has created an album that will not work at all times, put this on at a summer block party and you will be kindly told to, “fuck outta here with this.” But when the time is right, when you’re feeling a little off, when it’s too late and you are miles from home but determined to get there by sunrise, there are few things released recently that capture that mood this well.
