The hardest thing about building a reputation in the turbulent world of underground rap is formulating an identity. Unless your crew has a fresh face, new sound or interesting persona, they'll sink instantly into the pop culture quagmire folks call independent obscurity. Such is the hurdle now facing Embedded's new Brooklyn protégés, Babbletron.
Consisting of Jaymanila, Calm-Pete and producer DJ Pre, the Babbletron team take their no-frills boom-bap to various platitudes, from regrets about the nature of time ("The Clock Song") to discontent with the artificial aspects of life ("SpecialFX") to an idiosyncratic (yet unfortunately corny) trip into outer space ("Space Tech Banana Clip"). Issues arise with personal taste regarding the vocalists: Jaymanila comes off like a smoke-free LoDeck, while Calm-Pete has a relaxed droll that recalls a more serious, introspective, and possibly sedated Edan.
While most of the album stands purely solid, "Birds" is the obvious triumph on Mechanical Royalty, and it may be one of the best songs of the year. An extended metaphor for promiscuous women, the boys play devil's advocate to her irresistible whoredom while Calm-Pete, rapping with a pleasantly slow, light cadence reminiscent of Slick Rick, warns, "Beware of the succubus, out to belittle us/ She's a perfect stranger, don't be ridiculous!" Over a xylophone and hard drum display, Jaymanila also hops into the fray, detailing how "you want her to want you, but she's just a cheap trick" and "the roles that she play don't have hit points or Bilbo." It isn't often that a song about such a common topic can end up so cleverly distinct.
Unfortunately, the production here is largely inconsistent. The crew's producer and scratch handler DJ Pre has a traditional beat approach that often seems to lack any kind of pulse, with few change-ups or even interesting samples. Ese and Hipsta, saviors of LoDeck's fantastic debut EP Bash It!, also appear, but fail to bring quite enough talent to distract from the lackluster production. Luckily, Rjd2 comes by to drop lounge piano, swirling windy cavern choir and entangled guitar lines on "The Clock Song", while MF Doom swings his way through theme show horns and a speedy break on "Space Tech Banana Clip" for a massive payoff.
Although they occasionally drop clever lines ("Sometimes I spit it so raw, the Japanese think I'm edible/ Oedipal, it ain't complex to see why you cry mommy"), Babbletron's song structures and lyrics come off as run-of-the-mill intelligent boom-bap, among the most vanilla offerings of the underground, regardless of their obviously noble intentions. The beats are weak, the record's too short, and the songs kind of blend together in a monotonous mash. While still a remotely interesting debut full-length, it leaves far too much to be desired.
