Bigg Jus

Aside from the rare guest appearance and rumours of a Company Flow reunion album, Bigg Jus has been mostly silent on the music front since the release of his last solo album, Poor People's Day, back in 2005. Not much has changed in the intervening years. He continues to make complex, next level hip-hop, although some will consider the controlled chaos of his glitchy electro-rap production and his distorted, offbeat delivery nothing more than discordant noise. With everything else that's going on in the music, it can take a bit of work to pick out the themes of world politics, conspiracy theories, b-boy braggadocio and even the dark humour permeating the lyrics. With that being said, Machines That Make Civilization Fun also features some slamming beats, with "Black Roses," "Advanced Lightbody Activation" and "Food For Thought (Shit Sandwich)," the latter being the most straightforward, accessible hip-hop track on the album, relatively speaking. He also attempts to add melody, with layered singing/rapping on "Game Boy Predator" and "Machines That Make Civilization," his singing a mix of death metal meets alt-rock, which is nice for a change of pace but harder to interpret and could get annoying before too long. Two instrumentals ("Hard Time For New Lovers" and "Respective of F1 Dub") offer some mellow moments, although the former still ends with a hard-hitting, glitchy bass synth solo. Machines That Make Civilization Fun is Bigg Jus's best, most well-rounded solo album so far, but it's still a difficult listen that will likely limit the album's appeal to advanced listeners only.