Rating:
  Review Date: March 17, 2008
  Website: Bisc1 Website
  Label: Embedded Music

Bisc1 “When Electric Night Falls” Album Review
This album is somewhat of a paradox. From a production standpoint, the beats are overwhelmingly dark and grimy, and feature gritty baselines and heavy electronic synths to demonstrate an eerily futuristic sound. From a lyrical standpoint, however, Bisc1 creates a much more positive vibe. While the album’s verses are compiled of several stories of struggle and hardship, the experiences are told mixed with optimistic interpretations and philosophical thought. This effect makes “When Electric Night Falls” an interesting combination of intelligent feel good lyrics over hauntingly eclectic beats.

Bisc1’s “When Electric Night Falls” starts off with Turbulence, a song that challenges us to “see the lows and the highs” of virtually everything. He then makes this point with a handful of storytelling tracks intended to show both positive and negative aspects of several situations.

Parallels speculates the stories of people we pass every day in the city. Fire N Ice breaks down the highs and lows of romantic relationships. And Great Escape contemplates the positives and negatives of touring and creating a widespread musical movement.

In Parallels, Bisc drops the following verse intended to show these “lows and highs” of which he speaks. He tells of a crying woman and some playing kids he passes simultaneously on the street, and wonders the reasons behind each set of emotions:

Looked up to see the tears fall and touch pavement/
Knowing to go past, never look back at the statement/
This one I did and the thoughts crossed my lid/
Thinking about her and how the day might have flipped/
Eyes screaming loud, cell phone started shakin’/
All I could wonder was what the other end was sayin’/
Maybe a man left her, someone breathed their last breath/
Or maybe more sadness, something tragic – what a mess/
But I don’t want to imagine the idea and passed ‘em/
On the other side two little guys smilin’, laughin’/
Could be the best day their eyes ever seen happen/
To opposite sides on the same sidewalk passin’/

Other tracks take this a step further by demonstrating the necessary uncertainty inherent in viewing situations from alternate perspectives. In Sidelines, Bisc asserts that “a warrior can’t stop to think what the other decision holds,” yet enlists a sample encouraging us to “stop, look, and listen.”

This type of tug of war can also be seen in Paranoia, in which Bisc teams with two guest emcees to describe individual feelings of fear, Unconditional, in which Bisc praises his parents and family for holding him back as a youth, and Strange Love – arguably the banger of the album – which is sort of an ode to Graf writing that praises the art form while expressing an uncertainty about where an addiction to it might take you.

In Unconditional, Bisc drops the following verse looking upon his parents from their perspectives. He tells of how their discipline, though ill-received at the time, was actually a blessing:

Education a must – stressed when I slipped up/
Pissed but your discipline was only your love/
I was thinking you was tough, trying to hold me back/
But your holding me back led me to walk a righteous path/
Contrast enough to fall and make my own choices/
Allow me space to grow and found where the voice is/
Now your boy is a reflection of your hardships/
In my eyes you shine – respect stretched farthest/
Mothers, fathers, sons, siblings and daughters/
Family irreplaceable – so glad we got us/
So much to pay back, I’ma put it in the air/
I don’t know anybody who could ever compare/

But overall, Bisc1’s “When Electric Night Falls” succeeds brilliantly in turning tragedy to triumph, or fear into comfort. Another Day tells the firsthand account of a man awaking to some sort of thermonuclear war scene, only to end out as a dream cut short by a wake up call. Pandemonium tells equally disturbing stories about explosive attacks and being robbed at gunpoint, yet maintains the positive outlook, spoken from a slowed down Mr. Lif sample, that “life is a gift to be enjoyed every second.” The following verse from that song epitomizes this philosophy:

For all the feelings I catch I know life can go fast/
So while I’m here I do my best to just live it and laugh/
Every feeling that slips I know there’s no coming back/
So while I’m here I do my best to just enjoy where I’m at/
You could be at war in Iraq, breathing toxic gas/
Homeless unfortunate feenin’ for killer cracks/
Could be frozen paralyzed, wheelchairs and broken backs/
You’re hear living life, so just enjoy it where you at/

And it was this high and low – this back and forth; this uncertainty – that made Bisc1’s “When Electric Night Falls” such a great album in my mind. Every song, every chorus, and every verse seems meticulously placed to make you question, think and interpret. I’ve been listening to it for over a week now and am still rewinding verses and trying to pick things up. If you like lyrical hip-hop that is both conscious and intellectual, you’ll be able to appreciate this album. It is undoubtedly one of the best underground releases of the year thus far, and I highly recommend picking up a copy. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. Night Fall
2. Turbulence
3. Parallels
4. Pandemonium
5. Paranoid - Grimace
6. Sidelines
7. Fire and Ice feat. Mariella
8. Unconditional
9. Strange Love
10. Another Day
11. Inner-Mood
12. Great Escape