The Beast and their debut full-length album, Silence Fiction, are likely to be classified as hip-hop first and jazz second because the former is the more prominent of the two genres today; however, the strength of these tracks is the intricate jazz instrumentations making The Beast more jazz quartet than hip-hop ensemble.Silence Fiction combines a myriad of different genres and The Beast's exceptional musical transitions bring it all together. Sometimes the music turns on a single chord, other times the drums lead the transition from the bottom up. Either way, they're smooth. Even the vocalist, Pierce Freelon, moves effortlessly between singing and rapping. “Translation” is a perfect example as the track moves from a bass heavy hip-hop intro to a swift salsa verse and then slows down to a horn heavy big band chorus.
Where the album suffers slightly is in the lyrics. Yes, there are a ton of nerdy (R.L. Stein, Johnny Quest, Ninja Turtles, etc.) and local (Harris Teeter, Bojangles, Bull City, etc.) references that are cute on the first listen, but lose their effect after that. There's too much packed into each verse and it can make one dizzy. They also have a bad habit of name dropping themselves, which can get annoying. Of course, much can be forgiven when fantastic lyrics pop up, like “These are modern day spirituals/ coded in the lyricals/ see what type of message you can find” from “Professor X.”
With strong instrumentals and marvelous execution, Silence Fiction lives up to the promise of the first two EPs and is proof that creative jazz is still pop music.
The Beast will play WKNC's Local Beer Local Band night at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh this Thursday, Dec. 3 at 10 p.m.
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