(Hip Hop, Leftfield, Downtempo) [EP] [16/44] Aphilas - Instrumentally Ill EP - 2004, FLAC (tracks)

(12.05.05) I’m sitting in my 6500 square foot loft in the middle of downtown Atlanta as rain pours around me behind old factory windows. The stone gray clouds give visualization to the white noise of the rain. It’s midnight and a train is rolling by; a sole hanging light encompassed by the glow of the never truly dark city illuminates me. There’s a leak in the roof, creating a slow rhythm of thwops as drops of water hit the plastic-lined trash can directly in front of me. We recently acquired an old 70’s turntable/mixer wooden desk that can’t truly be described in words, and it is with this that I sit and listen to Aphilas new 12″ from Merck.
No soundtrack could be more fitting.
Aphilas blesses us with his Instrumentally Ill EP; a head-nodding collection of downtempo beats and sampled grooves in the vein of DJ Shadow and releases on Ninja Tune. Rife with old vinyl samples, Aphilas applies a more melodic treatment than his contemporaries. Rooted in hip-hop, this EP lives up to its name with an intelligent layering of jazzy horns and strings beneath harmonically placed voices and keys from thirty years ago. The beats are given a subtle IDM treatment, which at points resemble labelmate Machine Drum, like on “Collective Memory Loss” where syncopated triplets off beats and bass uplift the stoned horns and filtered pads.
Clocking in at just over 35 minutes, the Instrumentally Ill EP showcases Aphilas ass-shaking groove styles while filling out the mix with well-placed and well-picked layers of funk.
-- igloomag