Heave Media

The Musical Side of Chicago

Radius takes our beloved Chicago neighborhoods and makes them an album.

Radius

Neighborhood Suicide

Released on Nov 30, -0001

There are certain types of music that are made for the background - the songs that compliment a commercial, a memory, an event - yet fade into the background enough to not outshine the real matter at hand. Chicago sample-based producer Ramon Norwood (better known as Radius) is proving to be a master at this craft with the release of Neighborhood Suicide, an album full of readymade tracks that would be right at home on any Adult Swim commercial.

Following the stylistic likes of MF Doom or J-Dilla, Radius takes a clever concept and provides a repetitive yet catchy hip-hop soul soundtrack. The clever concept being that each track is titled with a neighborhood or area of Chicago. God knows I'm a sucker for a shtick like that, especially when one of the tracks is named after a former hood of mine. I listen intensely to "Rogerspark (Northpolebakery)," trying with all my might to imagine the neighborhood I spent a good amount of time in, and wandering where in the hell this North Pole Bakery was. I guess I take things a bit too literal, yet I clearly could vision my ride on the 147 bus being played out to this song, including the repetitive beats that were syncing up with the stop/start motion of every bus stop on Sheridan Road.

See, the only problem I have with Neighborhood Suicide is that I enjoy some good beats, but I don't want the same beat for five plus minutes. This sound works perfectly for a thirty second ad spot pimping the most recent episode of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, but after about a minute and a half, I really just want to hear some variation in sound. Radius provides a clean and articulate base of sound, but fails to win me over with the monotony of each track. Monotony may work perfect to describe my daily bus ride on Lake Shore Drive to work, but when it comes to music, I'd like to feel just something slightly different. The social commentary with some of the vocal samples just seems a bit cliché. Oh look, a socially conscious hip-hop artist who wants to bring to light the injustice of society, government and race; not very original.

I'd still recommend giving Neighborhood Suicide a spin through, if for anything a cool concept and some good background music. Is it music that will change my life or the way I feel about the world? Probably not. But will I put this shit on in the background of the rooftop parties I'll have this summer? You bet your bottom I will. Every good summer party needs some decent background music, right? Now time to go watch a bit of Adult Swim.

If you Google "band Radius," you'll find another group by the same name out of California that recently played the California Avocado Festival. That, my friend, is pretty rock.

Posted by Lisa White on May 23, 2008 @ 12:00 am