Prefuse 73 - Security Screenings Review

When Prefuse 73 followed up his stellar One Word Extinguisher with his sub par Surrounded by Silence, Prefuse AKA Scott Herren disappointed a lot of loyalists. In Silence, Prefuse traded his space funk with a case of ADD for a marathon of “I know these people.” Ironically, in Surrounded by Silence, Herren was surrounded by too many, lacing nearly every track with a guest. The idea, in theory, made sense but the execution of combining MC’s with blip-hop was unsteady. I’m not sure how you mess up a Ghostface/El-P collabo, but somehow their track together was lifeless and unoriginal. Hard to accomplish with a pair of such progressive individuals.

Prefuse goes back to what blew him up in the first place on Security Screenings. The guests are minimal- with Four-Tet and Babatunde Adebimpe of T.V. on the Radio- and exclusively instrumental. This album is Herren’s confirmation that every track isn’t fit for a rapper. He even throws in some self-depreciation on “Illiterate Interlude.” In the skit, a reporter says that he didn’t like Silence, sarcastically asking, “could there be any more guests?”

The answer to this question is, in a way, no. Samples are thrown in and pulled out at such an abundant pace that the album probably has 1000 guests, although not in real time. Nothing is sacred for Herren, whether he’s warping some dialogue from old romance movies (“The Letter: P”) or using live conversation to fade in and out of the background (“With Dirt and Two Texts”), Herren uses the samples in creative ways that just wouldn’t make any sense out of context.

“Keeping Up with Your Quote” is presumably what you would hear if you were stuck inside a computer. Stabs of random fuzz and blips jump by in all directions before settling into a dreamlike shower of light synths. This track, like most on Security is short and to the point, improving on Silence’s tendency to run the same concept on for too long.

For the funkiest psychedelic track, you have to go to “When the Grip Lets You Go,” a short exercise in buildups and releases. A cacophony of cymbals leads into a full, bouncy bass line that gives way to a horn straight out of Lawrence of Arabia. Herren’s main skill remains the ability to tie so many seemingly disparate ideas together.

At times, the album goes on cruise control, like the R&B-stuck in a time-warp of “Another One Long Gone,” which overstays its welcome and becomes irritating. “Creating Cyclical Headaches,” the collaboration with Kiernan Hebden of Four Tet, provides one of the more accessible tracks, at least until Prefuse chimes in. It begins with Hebden’s Airy synth line and then Prefuse puts some heavy guitar distortion and rips the intestines out the music.

It’s nice to see Prefuse-73 back in classic form after straying from what he does best. You can’t blame him for trying to experiment. For this guy, it seems any idea is worth playing with, so play on.

"Security Screenings" is on sale February 7, 0006 from Warp.