Culture Prophet - Lies & Deceit

Considering I just interviewed Culture Prophet (view the interview here), I really don't think an introduction at all is necessary to either the artist or his latest album. Either way, this album spans a total of eleven songs with a guest collaboration featuring Treznik, and a shit ton of different genres are explored and crossed within under an hour. And it's done in good style. 

An aptly titled 'Open Gates' begins off "Lies and Deceit", which will pretty much prepare you for the rest of your journey throughout the album. It mixes up elements of ambient music, IDM, and some very sci-fi sounding synth effects in a matter of two and a half minutes. It's very slow moving, but has some tribal like chords that help move it along. 

'Kill The Fire' showcases just how good Culture Prophet's vocals can really come; he's able to completely flow with the beat of the song in stylish manner. Not to mention that the song was pretty much made by Treznik; this is how collaborations should be done. It's tight, riveting, and alluring. 

'Eating Concrete' comes along as a pretty simple electro song. There is no big bass or really hardcore dance elements to it, but some driving rhythmic lines do come into play later in the song, which makes sure the track doesn't become stale. 

'Harvest' comes along with a lot of heavy bass and is accented by Prophet's dragging voice; it came off a bit witchy as well, and I like that bit. 'Sleeping Lord' is different from the rest of the songs; his vocals come off less dreary and more or less like it's out of a rock song from the eighties. The beat seems to take that same eighties sort of tone and just bring it into a modern, electronic sense. I really, really loved this song. 

'Assassins' allows the middle east to meet the electronic world; though I've seen mix ups like this in the past, I believe that Prophet was able to pull it off a lot better than most. 'From The Earth' is more ritualistic than anything, utilizing what sounds like really, really deep pitched vocal work, tribal drums, and a horn that just goes on throughout the entire one minute and seven second duration. It was odd, but sort of followed on 'Assassins'. 

'Giallo' was another nice electro song. It was decent, but really didn't have a unique kick to it. I found it skippable. However, 'Green' brought us back up to speed, and punched in a better sound with multi-layered sounds and glitchy effects abound. 

I didn't find myself too fond of 'Switch'; it did show off an understanding of electronic music making, but it also just sounded a bit standard for the genre. In comparison to some of Prophet's other songs I've heard so far on this LP, this one just seemed sub-par. Lastly, 'Sunday Morning' came in hitting as possibly the most lyrically driven song so far. The beat was odd and lovely, and overall the song came off very emotional and passionate; it was quite the catch. 

And now that I've been through this album multiple times and have drooled over certain aspects of it on numerous occasions, I can walk away with saying that my verdict is a good one. Sure, there were a few songs on the album that I didn't find as fetching as the next, but, really, there wasn't a single mess of a song on 'Lies and Deceit'. The production value was really decent, and marks one of the better albums I've heard recently. With an EP and a sister album coming out within the next coming months, now has never been a better time to be a fan of Culture Prophet. 
May 06 2015