Send "Rob Swift " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 The term “turntablism” isn’t rolling off the tongues of critics or music fans quite as often as it once did, back in the days when the X-ecutioners (or before that, X-Men) were more prominent and that group’s Rob Swift was first putting out solo albums. Among the most noteworthy DJs of the time (or at least of those un-attached to a particular MC), Rob Swift is one who is still rolling along. Since his first solo LP, Soulful Fruit, was released in 1997, he’s been continually engaged in a variety of projects of different types. He’s skilled at his craft, of course, but also ambitious. Previous albums have included forays into salsa and jazz, plus an album-length political statement, 2005’s War Games. With The Architect, Swift is inspired by a particular set of musicians who he considers ‘architects’ of music: nope, not early DJs or MCs, but classical composers. His bio quotes him as saying, about hearing classical music: “that was a pivotal moment for me as an artist.” This isn’t the first time hip-hop musicians have tried to tap into the grandeur of classical music. Usually, they seem to be taking their direction from film composers: using score-like strings, for example, the way action films would use them to lend the setting a larger-than-life sense of importance. Rob Swift might be one of the first DJs to explicitly try and emulate the structure of classical music, at least to an extent. He’s tried to build some of these tracks as larger pieces, with three or four tracks joined together as “movements” of the same work....full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| In the hands of Queens native Rob Swift, the master turntablist who has collaborated with everyone from Blue Man Group to Mike Patton, hip-hop is a pliable tool, a genre to be warped and moulded and parlayed into a musical force shorn of recognisable boundaries. He first tumbled into Patton’s orbit as a member of the X- Ecutioners, who went into battle with the singer on General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners in 2005, and has since toured with Peeping Tom. The Architect firms up that relationship by becoming Swift’s first solo release on Patton’s Ipecac label, which gives him a chance to pull deep from his bottomless pit of beats and move away from his jazz-y roots, instead forcing a symbiotic relationship between the worlds of hip-hop and classical music. This being a Swift project, it’s hard to identify exactly where those confines begin and end. He’s a master at finding the sweet spot where genres cross-pollinate and blur seamlessly into one another, and he makes it sound effortless, as if Brahms and the Bomb Squad were always destined to jam together. In short, he’s a DJ who can expertly take a square peg and make it fit seamlessly into a round hole, forging harmonious relationships in the most unlikely places. Swift isn’t the first hip-hop DJ to assimilate elements of classical music into his sound, but rarely has anyone attempted a project this grandiose. He may shy away from the term ‘concept album’, but that’s exactly what The Architect is, with MC Breez Evahflowin occasionally cropping up to remind us of the record’s central theme, and several tracks splintering into lofty three-part movements. The album begins with a couple of introductory tracks that mash up elements of digital noise and ascending string samples, which get cut off just as they hit a fluid groove. This is a recurring theme on The Architect, as Swift rarely lets any of his songs settle into a recognisable shape or pattern, instead pulling them up sharp after just one or two minutes and moving on to the next track. Evahflowin helps form order from the chaos by surfacing on ‘Principo’, where his laidback rap lays down some ground rules (“don’t shuffle this LP”) and demonstrates the scope of Swift’s ambition (“the art form elevated to the next level of turntablism”). The two three-part movements around which the album revolves, ‘Rabia’ and ‘Lower Level’, are where Swift really settles into his style. There’s a dramatic, horn-infused prelude to ‘Rabia’ that sets an ominous tone, but quickly changes with the dense Farfisa-like organ sounds and agitated scratching, which are coupled with bouncy string samples and chopped-up beats. Swift often keeps isolated string or brass patterns low in the mix, allowing them to be smothered by dense church organ noise, making it sound like there’s a phantom orchestra wriggling to get out of his turntables. It’s certainly very cinematic —the incidental music that brings ‘Rabia’ to a close could easily have been lifted straight from one of Bernard Herrmann’s Hitchcock scores....full text |
| Hiphopdx |
| The Architect, Rob's first solo studio album since 2005's War Games, places the Jackson Heights, Queens, native and his gifted hands center stage as he eschews features (one emcee - Breez Evahflowin' - complements two tracks) for thorough solo cut compositions with palpable substance. It's a carefully constructed LP that dispenses with the novelty of songs built from scratch by a deejay and simply spotlights the creativity of a musician. The Architect also is a departure from the conceptual War Games and Ill Insanity's (Rob, DJ Precision, DJ Total Eclipse, Dashah) Ground Xero. There's a tangible classical music influence here, with the former X-ecutioner at once playing the role of conductor and orchestra. It might sound ambitious, but it works. Breez breaks it down on "Principio": The art form elevated/ the next level of turntablism and innovators. Two songs anchor The Architect: "Rabia" and "Lower Level." Both are deconstructed into three movements, and both boast the maturity and texture of a symphony. Again - ambitious, but rewarding. On "Rabia," soaring strings are met with frenetic percussion for an invigorating opening movement; those drums are later minced by Rob, as are the violins and eery organs. "Lower Level" begins with cut-and-sewn phrases from the inimitable Chuck D over a bed of dank, dusty drums; listen to the guitar as it's double-time scratched and transformed. Horns take the lead on the second movement, with Kool Keith telling us "As the record just turns, you learn, plus burn." Cascading keys and plodding drums take you out on the last movement....full text |
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