Tacoma Mocking Bird:Eliot Lipp

Artist: Eliot Lipp

Date Released: February 21, 2006

Label: Hefty

Produced By: Eliot Lipp

Tracklisting:
 * 1) Glasspipe
 * 2) Tic Tac
 * 3) Rap Tight
 * 4) Brand New
 * 5) Times Four
 * 6) Last Night
 * 7) Check Weight
 * 8) Rhyme War
 * 9) The People
 * 10) Sex Tape
 * 11) Mashin' on Em
 * 12) Spit Rap
 * 13) Vallejo

Review: To be completely honest with you, there is nothing completely individual or spectacular about Eliot Lipp. His music is not breaking any ground, nor is it re-inventing anything in particular. Hell, he does not even spend all of his free time drastically searching for that yet-to-be-heard drum break hiding snuggly in the back of some crate, in some mom-and-pop record store, in some forgotten podunk town. Instead Lipp is modestly perfecting a somewhat redundant instrumental hip-hop genre. Sticking almost completely to his synthesizer/drum machine/bass template, the Tacoma, WA native crafts songs using a minimal aural palette with impressive results. Utilizing traveled but classic drum breaks, Lipp tends not to surprise that often, but he certainly satisfies. Multiple synth lines constantly flourish and weave as the bass line bounces just enough to get a club on their feet, and that proven drum break keeps everything at a steady mid-tempo beat. There is certainly a new layer of polish added on to this album as opposed to his self-titled debut, which is somewhat of disappointment. When I stumbled across his first album a year or two ago, most of the appeal was that at the time, it was an overachieving and mysterious self-produced instrumental hip-hop record. It was raw, youthful and full of virginal energy, which is what 'Tacoma Mocking Bird' lacks. Lipp seems to have found his particular voice in the time between the two albums, but hopefully it's just a stepping stone for what's to come and not a plateau. Mpardaiolo