Rubberoom - Architechnology

From Aaron Shuman:
"If as Ganxsta Ridd once said, the microphone is a gun because you don't pick one up unless you know how to use it -- a dictum critics of hiphop would do well to heed -- then Chicago's Rubberoom has a full arsenal of sound at its disposal. On Architechnology's inset, a phoenix-like creature rises from the South Side, mike-guns drawn, spans the city in a back-flip, and lands gracefully on the Gold Coast downtown, all against the most honeyed sunset skies this side of Coltrane's Interstellar Space. The image is not just millenial fancy but an accurate reflection of Rubberoom's role in the scene, since the album boasts 5 MCs with 13 different DJs, drawn from Chicago's various neighborhoods, no easy feat in a city known more for its segregation than its hiphop.

On Architechnology's back cover, the phoenix returns from downtown, flying out of a sun pinched between stormier clouds, mike-guns replaced by smoke rising from clenched fists, visor raised, eye sockets burning with holy light. "Smoke" is Rubberoom's anthem about the spread and transformative potential of the Word, spoken in underground networks of hiphop and poetry slams.

With this many DJs on the record, Architechnology's songs are often as cinematic as they are rockers. Most cuts begin with subsonic bass and keyboards rising like fogbanks, occasionally followed by Hound of the Baskerville-style baying or other signifiers of a wasteland, before our heroes' voices cut through like searchlights. The music, in other words, creates an arena of heightened awareness and perception -- much as Raptivism Records employs hiphop as a theater for organizing with its No More Prisons comp, on which Rubberoom also appears -- the beats come kicking once the knowledge starts dropping.

Architechnology is a 3-2-1/Indus Records release."

Artist: Rubberoom
Album: Architechnology
Label: Sub Verse Music
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP
Country: US
Released: 1999
Genre: Hip Hop

Tracklisting:

A1 Born (4:48)
A2 Smoke (4:52)
A3 Lock Jaw (4:38)
A4 The Shining (3:30)
B1 The Revelry (Acapella) (0:22)
B2 Bleach (5:06)
B3 Acid (5:37)
B4 Vertigo (Extended Mix) (7:19)
C1 Sector Rush Rmx (Rebuilt) (5:39)
C2 Style Wars (6:51)
C3 Architechnology Nine (5:18)
C4 Pathway To The Abyss (1:38)
D1 Offering 1366 (2:44)
D2 Trial Of The Vampire (3:41)
D3 Space And Time (7:21)
D4 Operation Forever (4:49)

Enjoy.

Rubberoom - Architechnology (Rapidshare Link)

Rubberoom - Architechnology (Mediafire Link)