Psychoactive Soundscapes: Top 20 Mind-Bending Albums For 2012: 08. Aesop Rock – Skelethon

• MAIN POST
• 20. Scriptures – Self-Titled
• 19. House of Hayduk – City of Quartz
• 18. Kingdom of the Holy Sun – Phrarmacokinetics
• 17. Goat – World Music
• 16. The Mars Volta – Noctorniquet / Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – Octopus Kool Aid
• 15. Midday Veil – Integratron
• 14. Baroness – Yellow & Green
• 13. Om – Advaitic Songs
• 12. THEESatisfaction – awE naturalE
• 11. Six Organs of Admittance – Ascent
• 10. Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music
• 09. Tokyoidaho – Self-Titled
• 08. Aesop Rock – Skelethon
• 07. Ancestors – In Dreams And Time
• 06. Gaytheist – Stealth Beats
• 05. Liars – WIXIW
• 04. Guided By Voices – Class Clown Spots A UFO / The Bears For Lunch
• 03. Soundgarden – King Animal
• 02. Astra – The Black Chord
• 01. El-P – Cancer For Cure

08. Aesop Rock – Skelethon (Rhymesayers Entertainment)

PURCHASE ON AMAZON

The thing about poetry in 2012 is that if you can’t weave it into some sort of a narrative or set it to music, it’s cripplingly boring. The beauty in disjointed language structures is that they strive to re-create completely unexplainable altered states of consciousness. At least, that’s the idea. This sort of William S. Burroughs/Henry Miller-style writing seems to be completely lost on a lot of the increasingly binary thought prone tech generation, which is sort of depressing. But they seem to dig Mr. Rock, and that’s a positive sign. I have absolutely no idea how the hell a guy who admittedly doesn’t read much can pull this kind of thing off so effectively. Outside of a few brief narratives, none of his songs make much logical sense at all.

It’s all about creating a mood, and the mood he creates is a sprawling shape-shifting psychic vista of clever brain-warping word salad. It’s kind of like listening to a less violent episode of Super Jail! through your headphones: more bizarre surrealist suggestions than your brain can even begin to keep up with. You just keep catching more and more detail with repeated listens, but again — it’s really about the weird ass headspace his flow creates. Just as mind-altering as an orgy of guitar noise, if not moreso. To quote the man himself: “Anything else would be ri-godamn-diculous!”