The first track of Fringe Character’s new album starts with a sound reminiscent of a Game Boy booting up. It’s fitting, because Phases is like a video game — an immersive, time-traveling, interdimensional space odyssey.
From that Gameboy sound, and the ensuing instrument breakdown on the lead-off track, “1k honey,” Fringe Character — a local hip-hop collective made up of a number of rotating vocalists and instrumentalists — draws you into a strange galaxy. This new album is their third, and it’s definitely their strongest yet.
The instrumentalists set the tone for the spacy ethereality of the album. They do a good job of making each track feel distinct, without disrupting the album’s overall cohesion. “Pleiades” with its pots-and-pans drumming and dreamy guitar licks, is like taking a trip to a strange dwarf planet, where the wildlife grows rampant and gravity feels out of whack.
“Golden Age I,” on the other hand, is sparse and elegiac; the keys and sound effects create the sensation of traversing through dark stretches of open space. But the woozy synth and dogged jazziness of the drums are unmistakable Fringe Character.
And another consistency between this and previous albums is, of course, the jokesters, philosophers and eulogists on board — the vocalists. Daewong, Dudu Stinks, Red Leonard, Mr. Jackson, MC Zulu and Fivy all have a turn at the mic, but the album has standout tracks from Greg B. and Daewong.
“Star Washer,” a track featuring solo vocals from Greg B., provides one of the best moments on the LP. “I wash the stars for you/to shine so bright for you” he sings to a sparse synth accompaniment. The song evokes the feeling of being willing to do anything for a loved one.
Daewong is a stabilizing force throughout the length of the project. His deft emcee-ing skills, with his airtight flows and cadences, contrast with the sheer abstraction of lyrics like "perennial irrigation my elevation/galactic creation no pasteurization/procuring the pine needles for levitation/spontaneous sound waves my salvation."
Some of the album’s lyrics can be confounding, but that’s probably by design. Daewong, and all of Fringe Character’s vocalists, excel at crafting lines that allow plenty of listener interpretation, while still providing some solid footholds.
Case in point are the lines Daewong leaves us with in the concluding track, “Fantasy Trouble”: “We've lost what's important and hidden the vital/that the love from the heart is the cyclical cycle.”
What is a cyclical cycle? Perhaps by having the audience consider these questions, with no apparent answers, Fringe Character is creating meditative exercises, where the listeners form their own answers.
By leaving room for whimsical interpretation and still providing all the entertainment value of a successful hip-hop album, Fringe Character has accomplished something special.
Fringe Character plays a release party for Phases on Oct. 14 at the Crystal Corner Bar.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story mis-attributed some lyrics to the wrong member of Fringe Character. This story has been updated to correct the mistake.
