Ah, this is the best album ever:

Dj Signify - Sleep No More

This is an amazing album, definitely in my top 10. Very cool, mellow hip hop.


"Previously known among the turntablist fraternity for his low key mix collection 'Signifyin' Breaks' (1997) and its successor 'Mixed Messages' (2000), New Yorker DJ Signify has emerged from the shadows clutching all the aces thanks to his spectacularly atmospheric solo debut for the inimitable Lex records. Not only is 'Sleep No More' arguably the greatest record Lex have released in an admittedly short lifespan that's seen the label already pick up some serious plaudits for the Non-Prophets' 'Hope', Tes' 'X2' and Danger Mouse & Jemini's 'Ghetto Pop Life', if there's any justice 'Sleep No More' is surely destined to be one of the records of the year when it comes to compiling those 'Best Of' lists for 2004. By Signify's own admission 'Sleep No More' is a concept album but the concept here isn't the familiar hip-hop repertoire of guns, booty, keeping it real or even cryptic political satire but, unlikely as it might sound, somniphobia or in plain English the fear of sleep. Rather than a trip to the rainbow-hued far side, this is a dislocated journey inside the monchromatic psychological haze of the compulsive insomniac. Add to this tiptoe through the ambiguous twilight zone between the land of the wide awake and the fast asleep the fact that as a self-confessed connoisseur of all manner of hallucenagenic substances Signify knows what it is to be strung out and this means he's able to weave a lifetime of blurred experience into the very fabric of 'Sleep No More' where the individual tracks dissolve into one another with all the fluidity of a dream-cum-nightmare.

But while all this would more than satisy the goals of most rank and file instrumental hip-hop artists, 'Sleep No More' has considerably more cards up its cavernous sleeves. Rather than conform to the blueprint of an any way regular instrumental hip-hop album, the structure of 'Sleep No More' mirrors its themes of sleeping and dreaming, with Signify's signature downbeat soporific moods periodically giving way to moments of lucidity represented by bouts of compelling episodic storytelling from the current masters of the off beat hip-hop narrative - Buck 65 and Sage Francis. Like the well travelled bohos they are, Buck and Sage each contribute a series of non-consecutive narratives (3 in the case of Sage, 4 from Buck) cataloguing assorted misadventures at the hands of an unspecified number of women. The fact that Signify can count Buck and Sage among his personal friends meant he was never stuck for options when it came to selecting potential MCs for his ambitious solo project. Far from featuring as conventional guest MCs, Buck and Sage are more cast as co-protagonists in the unfolding psychodrama and their vividly skewed scenarios with their talk of light sleepers watching sports, characters who look like Peter Fonda but smell like Jack Daniels and women carrying around dead crows in shoeboxes provide the perfect compliment to Signify's uncanny talent for coaxing a tangible sense of forboding from the barest of audio essentials.

For a project where the three protagonists never once found themselves together in the studio at the same time (Signify recorded Buck's contributions in Canada while Sage sent in his submissions by mail), 'Sleep No More' has a remarkably organic feel to it and, given the identity of its three cast members, in some respects 'Sleep No More' could be seen as the final part of a sharply contrasting trilogy after Sage's 'Personal Journals' (which Signify also appeared on) and Buck 65's 'Talkin' Honky Blues'. Like Buck's 1999 album 'Vertex' - an acknowledged source of inspiration for Signify - 'Sleep No More' adventurously extends the template of hip-hop by taking it into new, unexplored territitory which, in turn, acts as a springboard to all manner of wanderings in the imagination of the listener. At its simplest there's nothing quite like this self-styled soundtrack to an as yet unmade horror movie out there at the moment. 'Sleep No More' is a strangely haunting creation whose unsettling reverberations continue to impact on the psyche long after its 17 tracks have given way to the deepest silence. Thanks to Signify's ear for offbeat atmospherics, the high visibility of Buck 65 and Sage Francis and their evocative verbal ramblings plus the beguiling cinematic tone of the whole affair 'Sleep No More' has the potential to reach beyond the traditional audience for experimental hip-hop. Though far from easy listening at first, the more you absorb 'Sleep No More' the more it gradually reveals itself. For maximum impact play repeatedly in the dead of night and, in best horror movie tradition, Signify's extraordinary creation will start to take on a life all of its own."