Quakers
Quakers
Release Date: Mar 26, 2012
Genre(s): Rap, Underground Rap, Left-Field Hip-Hop
Record label: Stones Throw
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Album Review: Quakers by Quakers
Very Good, Based on 7 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
I never thought a Geoff Barrow hip-hop project would be anything more than a uniquely interesting sideshow, something to play through and enjoy, but nothing more. I never thought it’d be something to love and dissect. I never thought I’d listen to nothing else for three days straight after getting it. I never, ever expected anything this good.
Based on rating 9/10
Quakers might be named after seismic shifts, but their self-titled debut album is more like an explosion. A double-disc set featuring lots of producers, lots of emcees, and lots of tracks, it could be overwhelming, but the shared vision of everyone involved makes it a triumph. Going by the alias Fuzzface, Portishead's Geoff Barrow's fondness for hip-hop has long been evident in his work, but this is his first overtly rap project.
Based on rating 87%%
QuakersQuakers[Stones Throw; 2012]By Chase McMullen; March 29, 2012Purchase at: Insound (Vinyl) | Amazon (MP3 & CD) | iTunes | MOGTweetGeoff Barrow just dropped a 41 track hip hop album. One has to sit back and simply take in the audacity before registering just how massive that is. For “hip-hop heads,” the Portishead guru is an uncertain guest; during the earlier years of indie sensibilities creeping into rap culture, fans of the more traditional welcomed the changes with open arms; electing snobbery over the dull platitudes available on the airwaves.
Based on rating 7.1/10
Quakers features 41 tracks in 69 1/2 minutes. Now there's a fair amount of background detail to roll out when it comes to the latest Stones Throw release-- an indie rap committee project assembled by Portishead's Geoff Barrow, abetted by co-producers 7-Stu-7 and Katalyst, and given over to everyone from abstract-rap vets to obscure, googleproofed MySpace MCs. But above everything else, those numbers still jump out more than anything.
Based on rating 3/5
A rap consortium produced by Geoff ‘Portishead’ Barrow? [i]NME[/i] hoped for a dystopian cash money route: a nightmarish descent through the frozen coke-lands of conspicuous consumption; a future-brutal spin on Gucci Mane via Scandinavian nihilism. But ‘Quakers’ is warmly familiar, prosaic backpacker fare – a 41-track odyssey spanning the bad-ass (‘Fitta Happier’), the easy (‘There It Is’) and the thuggish (‘War Drums’), all fat beats, scratching and soul samples. That is ‘real’ hip-hop according to Barrow, and if you like your rap homespun, rich, physical and all ‘summer-in-NYC ’95’, it’s a dream.
Based on rating D
Though he makes up a mere 1/35th of Quakers, Geoff Barrow – best known as the man behind trip-hop legends Portishead – is easily the closest thing to a household name to be found in the newly-formed hip-hop collective on L. A. ’s celebrated Stones Throw Records, and subsequently, the name most likely to be highlighted, underlined, and otherwise singled out as the group’s primary member.
Opinion: Fantastic
Cult vocalists and complete unknowns trade the mic on this Earth-shaking hip hop set. Adam Kennedy 2012 Sprawling collectives have been part of hip hop from the artform's inception: Native Tongues, Wu-Tang Clan and Odd Future, for instance. But even by those standards, Quakers are a rather sizeable entity, numbering more than 35 members and pooling talent from around the globe.
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