Summertime With Unagi

Discussing Unagi's last album, I questioned whether his use of dated references and old school punchlines was an ironic evocation of one of the album's running themes of an older head out of his time or just his tastes.  Well, with the arrival of Western Mass Hysteria, his second fully vocal album but his fifteenth(!) in total, I guess I have my answer.  Because he hits us off with a slew of dad joke similes right from the jump: "Unagi is my moniker, my non de plume.  Down like Short Round from The Temple of Doom.  Transform chrysalis, Cocoon, Hume Cronyn.  Stay legendary like the 47 Ronin."  So calling it old school might be a little unfair; he mixed a little hashtag rap in there.

Now, regular readers will probably know by now that this is one of the easiest ways to make me "nope" right out of a song.  Pop culture references that seem to just be there to endear the listener through fond recognition ("hey, he said "The Temple of Doom."  I liked that movie!) or twee cutesiness, as opposed to making a worthwhile point about it ("Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me, you see? Straight-out racist that sucker was, simple and plain.  Motherfuck him and John Wayne, 'cause I'm black and I'm proud!  I'm ready, I'm hyped plus I'm amped.  Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamp" has weight) or just being genuinely clever.  With that cocoon stuff, I get the movie reference, but I guess he's just saying that he's grown into a beautiful butterfly in terms of musicianship?  And I've hated the hashtag gimmick since "Supa Dupa."

And the album continues like that.

So it is a testament to the man's abilities that this album recovers.

Unagi manages to tap a very unique vein that doesn't always work; but it often does, with his signature, laid back, easy listening energy, with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.  The best way I can describe it is to say: imagine if Tribe plateaued at "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo."  Yeah, that means no Midnight Marauders or anything that came after; but you can't say you didn't enjoy "El Segundo" when it came out.  So applying that notion to Unagi, first of all no, the dad jokes and celebrity name-dropping doesn't stop (don't get me started on "Favorite 80s Ladies").  But some of them were eliciting genuine smiles, like the "AARP, yeah, you know me" hook for his song about getting old.  And things feel considerably more robust as we pass the first couple of tracks and hit more conceptual songs.  "Small Town Style" is a cool summertime groove; and "Just Another Bank Robber" goes back to being silly, but it's smart and fun in a way that's impossible to grimace at.

I likened Unagi to the Peanuts and Corn crew before, and that comparison totally still stands.  How you feel about one will surely determine how you feel about the other.

And given that this guy's first thirteen albums were instrumental projects, it makes sense that the production does a lot of the heavy lifting.  His ode to his wife, "Date Night," might be a little corny, but the instrumental is great.  The MCing will prove divisive for those who check this out (the next 36 Chambers this ain't); you've really got to be in the right mood.  But you can't front on the beats.  The samples throughout WMH are so smooth and jazzy.  And the scratch breakdown on "Flyin' High," by DJ Toro Bravo is brilliant.  I absolutely will be revisiting it over the years, and this is coming from a guy who has amassed enough records and tapes over a lifetime to literally bury a whole family.  I've reached that stage where I honestly don't need anymore new music in my life... I figure playing everything from beginning to end one more time should take me to my grave.  But I'm gonna be making room to play this some more.

So like his last record, this is available via his bandcamp on vinyl as a single LP, limited to 200 copies, in a full-color picture cover that does a pretty good job conjuring up the album's the tone (all it needs is a Fozzi Bear somewhere in those trees).  And as you can see above, it also comes with a color insert depicting his complete discography and all the WMH lyrics (break our your magnifying glass!).  There's also an even smaller run (100 copies) of CDs available if that's more your speed.

Unagi, Too

You may remember me posting a review of an instrumental album by producer Unagi saying, "listening to this gets me more excited to check out a vocal album."  Well, I guess he was listening, because - while he has occasionally rapped on songs before - he's just dropped his first proper vocal album where he's both the MC and producer.  Now, real quick, just in case I've got any residual influence left, I want to say: I think Special Ed and Slick Rick should record an album together.  Okay, now watch this space in 2024.

Meanwhile, back to the new Unagi LP.  It's called Terminally Eel, and the title is one of several eel puns he's named his albums after.  I actually only recently got it now because I googled the name "Unagi."  It comes from the eel in Super Mario 64.  Anyway, Terminally's an album of mostly all new songs, each of which are 100% full vocal tracks.  I say "mostly" because a few of these songs are remixes of rare vocal tracks from his past: "U Stole My Heart" is from 2009's Reinventing the Eel, "Sunshine" is from 2011's All Set and I think "Excuse Me" was an online only joint from 2021.

So if you're new to Unagi as an MC, he's got a relaxed, low key voice and simple flow you're either going to vibe with or not.  The most direct analog, I think, is mcenroe, who's always kicked a pretty similar sound.  But his subtle yet jazzy production - which, actually, is also pretty in tune with the Peanuts & Corn gang - will be harder for anyone to dismiss.  There's more of a uniformity to the sound on this LP.  We don't really get any bouncy tracks, or high energy ones.  It's smooth, cool, but when you pay attention, they're pretty hearty, with a lot of rich samples.

An underlying theme of this album is aging, specifically in Hip-Hop, and some of the conflict inherent in becoming a mature artist in a genre often known for its brashness.  But Unagi approaches this in a considerably more wry way than, say, Whirlwind D.  He definitely has a penchant for punchlines like, "stay way underground like a Thai soccer team" or "you make me feel finer than the kindest grass in the winner's circle at the Cannabis Cup."  I think he's also intentionally using dated references and creaky old school style lines like "you got me flippin' like Mary Lou Retton" or "like The Jerk with the Optigrab and the special purpose" to sort of ironically emphasize the theme of an older head out of his time.  Or maybe that's just his tastes.

He gets away with it, in part, I think because of his droll flow, where if you're not in the mood, you can just vibe to the music and glide right over 'em.  And they're all in the service of more interesting contexts.  For example, "Baystate OGs" is at once a fond ode to his home state, listing out everything it's famous for, "originators, man, you know how we're living: so old school we invented Thanksgiving. Center of the universe and you know it's all true, started basketball, volleyball and baseball, too. Indian motorcycles, guns from Smith & Wessun, cranberry juice, Dr. Seuss teach you a lesson."  But it's not afraid to cynically point out its flaws and veer into scathing take-down territory, "Boston traffic nightmare like Wes Craven... where the witch trials caused widespread hysteria: Massachusetts, it's the spirit of America."

So as you can see there, I don't mean to imply this album is all on one topic.  He's got a song about rural life in the country, a song about being an overlooked artist, a love song, cars, weed, 80s nostalgia... "Worstworld" is specifically about crises in current world events.  But even then, it's sort of from a midlife "things used to be better than this" perspective.  And even that song can't help but get a little irreverent at points ("blue versus brown: shoot now, proof later.  Now there's more dead cops than in the first Terminator").  Yeah okay, maybe it does go too far at points.  But there's a sincere melancholy in and self-deprecation when he talks about his life that keeps things from feeling too whimsical: "I love making music but don't care to promote it.  Maybe that's why nobody noticed."  The only flat-out jokey song I'd say is the final one, "Old Man Rappin," which reminds me of novelty rap records like "Geezer Rap" or "You Didn't Use Your Blinker Fool" (lyrically, not sonically), by which point I reckon he's earned a spot of unrepentant silliness.

And Terminally Eel gets the fully loved vinyl treatment.  It comes from his own 442 Records label in a color picture cover and also includes an insert with the complete lyrics and his discography.  Speaking of which, he also has a very limited edition LP release of his self-titled 2003 instrumental debut, Unagi, still available as of this writing from his bandcamp.

Kick the Tires and Light the Fires with Unagi

Here's a fun little surprise that arrived in the mail this week: Optimum Altitude, the upcoming CD by Unagi on his own 442 Records.  Who?  Unagi's a former Bay area producer now situated in Massachusetts who regularly works with Infinito 2017 of UPS and did Motion Man's Adult Situations album.  Looking him up on discogs, I see he's put out a bunch of albums over the years, primarily instrumentals, but usually with a few guests sporadically providing vocals.  Well, Optimum Altitude is a new one of those, but there are no guests this time around, it's all beats.

With that said, though, he does pepper in an awful lot of vocal samples, which help keep things jumping.  And don't get me wrong, this isn't just a beat tape cycling loops for two or three minutes per track.  This is a proper instrumental album, where each song is full of ever-changing samples and movements.  If you remember that Motion Man album, Optimum Altitude actually has a very similar tone.  There's a lot of creative choices.  Jazzy horns and a few instruments that are hard to place.  You won't recognize many of these samples, apart from the vocal ones.  For example, a fun short track called "Yo Wasteoid" pairs a classic Super Lover Cee line with a famous quote from The Breakfast Club, plus more familiar snippets from Kurtis Blow, Public Enemy (both the Bumrush the Show "Yo!" and the "Yeah, boy!"), Run DMC, Biz Markie, etc.  And there is a little bit of Schoolly D's "P.S.K." drums in that one.  But it's mostly a chunky piano loop and staccato horn stabs.

Actually, though, I found myself drawn more to the smoother tracks.  "Carver High" is a stand-out with some choice R&B vocal loops and stylish horn riffs.  "Prom Night" and "Waterfront Dining" have the kind of vibes to lull you in despite yourself.  "Say Yeah" is a good time, too, with a bouncy disco-era vibe to it.  But you know me, I really wish a lot of these tracks had some rapping on them.  Or even some scratching.  Otherwise, instrumental albums tend to leave me feeling like I've read a screenplay rather than watched a movie, even when they are more fleshed out like this one.  Personally, listening to this gets me more excited to check out a vocal album Usnagi produced, because this proves he's got the chops - there's a lot of great material here.

And hey, there's obviously a solid audience for instrumental albums.  For a lot of people, something like Endtroducing is an all-time classic.  Me, honestly, I listened to it once and put it away.  So, from that you can tell if you're in that instrumental camp or not.  And if you are, keep an ear out for this.  Unagi's been posting some Optimum Altitude tracks on his socmed already, but the full album won't be out until July.  Fifteen tracks in a full-color sleeve; I reckon it'll be available on his bandcamp in a few more weeks.