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The Horror

by RJD2

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In contrast to much of the testosterone-loaded Definitive Jux camp, RJD2 has always seemed a man apart with his intricate, almost delicate sound collages. When his Dead Ringer appeared in 2002, many championed RJ as a rival to DJ Shadow as hip-hop's premier instrumentalist, and his ability to manipulate moods through music suggests that RJ is more than another introverted beat-maker stuck inside a bedroom. The Horror expands on RJ's previous work with revisits to some Dead Ringer favorites like the funkalicious "Let the Good Times Roll" and dramatic, campy title track. He retunes his own material to impressive effect on the remix for "Ghostwriter," but entirely new songs like the soulful, melancholy "Sell the World" are most interesting as RJ nimbly stitches together threads and loops of found sound into sublime new compositions. The bonus disc in this set includes live concert footage as well as the animated video for "The Horror." --Oliver Wang