One of the Pitchfork Festival’s best features is its ability to create ancillary events in the community. Of course, all these resulting shows and parties are just as packed as the festival, so hitting up any sort of entertainment can be burdensome. Pairing once-local comedian Hannibal Buress—yes, his parents named him that—with some of underground hip-hop’s most innovative producers rivals any grouping of performers at this year’s proper festivities. After a day filled with A$AP Rocky and BIG K.R.I.T., an instrumental interlude from the fingertips of former Chicagoan Jel should come in handy. There’s enough boasting in hip-hop, regardless of an MC’s actual talent. But Jel’s shadowy samples, flavored with a bit of looming sci-fi analog synthesizer, have been at the periphery of the genre for over a decade. Buress worked out of Chicago before heading to the East Bay along with anticon co-founder Adam “Doseone” Drucker, resulting in some utterly bizarre recordings—Them and Clouddead will always rank as collector fair, but each deserves the spate of critical love poured down upon it. When not working up production in team mode, Jel began issuing work under his own name, with a pair of 2002 albums released through Mush Records. Both “10 Seconds” and the first installment of the “Greenball” series comprise a handful of snippets, surrounded by longer compositions making use of easy listening vocals, instrumentation uncommon in hip-hop and basslines so heavy they’re capable of knocking out your speakers. And Jel hasn’t changed his approach to beat-making much. It might be stagnation or just an adamant belief in the endless possibilities of hip-hop’s bedrock beats. Either should be acceptable. Kyle Kinane, Rockie Fresh, Serengeti and DJ Tony Trimm open. (Dave Cantor)
July 13 at Lincoln Hall, 2424 North Lincoln, (773)525-2508. 10:30pm. $15-$25. 18+.
Related Stories
Sort of About Death But Groovy: Blonde Redhead at Thalia Hall on Halloween What’s unique about Blonde Redhead is the way the simplicity of their compositions belies the rich instrumentation and disguises their deconstructionist impulses. Expect Blonde Redhead to deliver plenty of spooky music on Halloween night.
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
RECOMMENDED
