Long time hip hop enthusiast and resident of Tacoma, Washington, Eliot Lipp has released his second creation for John Hughes innovative Hefty label and it’s a delight for fans of (mostly) instumental, synthesized headnodding beats. It’s no coincidence that his talent was originally recognised by Scott Herron, whose Prefuse 73 creations share more than a little in common with Lipp’s warm, bouncing basslines and staccato edits and structures.
Lipp’s aim is to create hip hop allowing the strength of the music give an energy that compensates for the lack of an MC rhyming over the tune. His influences such as IDM (his words, not mine!) and Chicago post-rock are evident at times also. That’s the beauty of most of the roster at Hefty, they aren’t afraid to mix it up and stray away from the rulebook to create a unique sound that has the ability to surprise the listener as well as enveloping them in a warm familiarity through quality production, album pacing and smart consistency.
Steele Street Scraps conveys a smooth grooviness that echoes the robotic funk Dimlite or Dabrye are capable of, but with a silky touch and not as cluttered. His love of Dr.Dre, RZA, Madlib and the 90’s golden age production of the Hieroglyphics crew are all evident on tracks such as ‘Choosey’ and ‘Next Break’. Lipp isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, you can almost picture him, headphones on, seated in front of his gear with eyes closed with a steady head nod rocking to his snappy little creations.
This is in fact a mini-album consisting of leftover tracks from his much lauded Hefty debut Takoma Mockingbird, along side several new tunes and 3 tasteful remixes handled by labelmates Earmint, Perth’s Victor Berman and his boss John Hughes. There’s a lot to enjoy here in 30 minutes, and who knows? Maybe soon he’ll drop a nice collaboration with some MC’s on board – that would be a real treat. For now, these instrumental slices of future funk will suffice.
Lyndon Pike
