Arznova: During the renaissance musicians experimented
with the arsnova (new art) style of composition, featuring
chords and integration of music and lyrics.
Coming straight out of Jersey, supreme lyricist Viro
the Virus a.k.a. Jersey's Finest a.k.a. Chuck Smut seeks
to continue his success from debut release "Future
Trauma" when he teams up with Caliph-Now to form
Arznova. This really is The Longest EP Ever,
weighing in at around fifty-six minutes. One thing I
want to get out of the way right off the bat: Caliph-Now's
beats are just plain sick. Ranging from spaced-out and
melodic to bass-filled, hard-hittin' tracks, he releases
an avalanche of sound on the listener from start to
finish. He even gets center stage on a few tracks that
serve as well-placed instrumental breaks in a verbally-heavy
environment.
The albumstarts off with the appropriately titled Welcome,
and you can tell from the first few bars that Viro's
going to have a field day tearing up the beats Caliph-Now
serves up. Viro and his lyrical content are equally
unique, and he successfully combines a refreshingly
different inflection and delivery with metaphors and
vocabulary that will leave you wearing out the rewind
button in no time. This is shown as time and time again
you're hit with lyrics like "…evading craniums
to stab your brainstem with safety pins, making ya cringe
like visions of ancient Arabian homo-sapiens on a pork-bacon
binge …" on the lead cut. Viro continues
on to show his flexibility on songs ranging in topic
from drug addiction gone awry to love stories to just
flat out nothing on the funky "Babadadoodeedoobadoo",
which invites you to "mimic the gibberish in
the chorus with us".
Arznova really has a rock-solid release here, targeted
to a lot of different listeners. There's something for
everyone on here, and Viro and Caliph-Now are both on
top of their games. The beats are different, the rhymes
are different, the samples are different - but different
is good. The only suggestion I would make for a more
cohesive listening experience would be to get rid of
the two second breaks in between the tracks, so that
the clear distinction of the song ending is not present.
Trust me; you won't want the beats to end once they
get your head bobbin'. Stop reading this right now,
and go cop the album.
check out Viro The Virus & Caliph at hobyahs.com
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Review by DJ CCx
Contributing Writer- PhillyHipHop.com
March, 2003
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