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Digable Planets ‎– Blowout Comb (1994) - New Vinyl 2 Lp 2013 Modern Classics Limited Edition Reissue - Jazzy Hip Hop

Digable Planets ‎– Blowout Comb (1994) - New Vinyl 2 Lp 2013 Modern Classics Limited Edition Reissue - Jazzy Hip Hop

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We are finally set to reissue Blowout Comb, the 1994 second album by cult, Brooklyn-based hip hop trio Digable Planets.

The album is named for the combs used to maintain an Afro hairstyle, and that’s significant. The group’s Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler said it summed up what they wanted to do with it: "It means the utilization of the natural, a natural style,” he has said.

Like with 1993’s debut Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space), ‘utilizing the natural’ meant creating hip hop that blended jazz with the formidable rap skills of the aforementioned Butterfly, Craig ‘Doodlebug’ Irving and Mary Ann ‘Ladybug Mecca’ Vieira. Unlike that debut, it meant broadening to include guests such as Gang Starr’s Guru, Jeru the Damaja, and Jazzy Joyce.

Following the gold-selling commercial success of their debut, they here set out to prove their artistic prowess. This is intelligent, alternative hip hop that sounded like party music. Its lyrics are dense with wit, social commentary and politics – and its original inner sleeve was modeled on the newspaper of the Black Panther movement.

Its instrumentation includes sax, vibraphone and flute. Its samples – gathered from global cratedigging trips while touring the first album around the world – included Grant Green, Eddie Harris, Shuggie Otis and jazz-funk pioneer Roy Ayers (whose “We Live in Brooklyn, Baby” became “Borough Check” here). And yet at the same time its beats are infectious and its spirit undeniable.

This is an album firmly rooted in Brooklyn. “Growing up hearing and cherishing this album, it created a textured soundscape of a mythical world of rhymes, jazz, breakbeats, culture, art and urban ambiance,” says DJ and fan Mick Boogie in the liner notes. “When I moved to Brooklyn years later, I found that the world I imagined while listening to this classic LP actually really existed…”

Though Digable Planets have reunited on occasion since – and though their influence endures in every top-shelf rap act with a jazzy sensibility – the trio parted ways after Blowout Comb, citing that old favorite "creative differences”. Sometimes, the most volatile combinations create the best art.

Digable Planets ‎– Blowout Comb

Label:
Modern Classics Recordings ‎– MCR 905, Pendulum Records ‎– MCR 905, Light In The Attic ‎– MCR 905
Format:
2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue
Country:
US
Released:
21 May 2013
Genre:
Hip Hop
Style:
Jazzy Hip-Hop

Tracklist 

A1 The May 4th Movement 4:56
A2 Black Ego 7:02
A3 Dog It 4:21
B1 Jettin' 4:39
B2 Borough Check 6:56
B3 Highing Fly / Agent 7 Creamy Spy Theme 1:23
B4 Dial 7 (Axioms Of Creamy Spies) / NY 21 Theme 5:47
C1 The Art Of Easing 5:06
C2 K.B.'s Alley (Mood Dudes Groove) 2:06
C3 Graffiti 4:03
C4 Blowing Down 3:51
D1 9th Wonder (Blackitolism) 4:27
D2 For Corners 7:02

Companies, etc.

  • Phonographic Copyright (p) – Capitol Records, LLC
  • Copyright (c) – Capitol Records, LLC
  • Copyright (c) – Pendulum Records
  • Licensed From – EMI Music Licensing
  • Lacquer Cut At – Golden Mastering
  • Pressed By – Rainbo Records – S-85041
  • Pressed By – Rainbo Records – S-85042
  • Pressed By – Rainbo Records – S-85043
  • Pressed By – Rainbo Records – S-85044

Credits

  • Arranged By [Keyboards] – Dave Darlington, Digable Planets
  • Art Direction – Henry Marquez
  • Co-producer, Recorded By, Mixed By – Dave Darlington
  • Concept By, Written-By, Producer, Arranged By – Digable Planets
  • Coordinator [Project] – Patrick McCarthy
  • Design [Package] – Carla Leighton
  • Design [Re-release] – Henry Owings
  • Engineer [Assisted] – Jack Hersca
  • Engineer [Second] – Dexter Simmons
  • Executive-Producer – Brenda Dash, Dennis Wheeler
  • Executive-Producer [Re-release] – Josh Wright, Matt Sullivan 
  • Keyboards – Dave Darlington
  • Liner Notes – Larry Mizell Jr.
  • Mastered By – Tom Coyne
  • Photography By [Cover Photographs] – Daniela Federici
  • Reissue Producer – Matt Sullivan 

Notes

Black vinyl edition.
Released in a non-embossed jacket with an insert.