Pitchfork: Anticon's Sole Unveils Mansbestfriend Side Project on Morr Music

Anticon's Sole Unveils Mansbestfriend Side Project on Morr Music
Still trying to think of clever name for locomotive that will be hauling equipment, personnel on tour

[Posted Thursday, February 5th, 2004 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Anticon founder and erroneously tagged "emo" hip-hopper Sole has recently finished up work on a home-produced collection of tracks to be unleashed on Berlin's überhip Morr Music. The album, which is titled The New Human is Illegal, is slated for a March 9th U.S. release. An early incarnation of the record was available as a tour-only disc on past Sole ventures, but after some persuasion and a few newly recorded cuts, the redheaded rhymesmith plans to unveil his bedroom masterpiece under the pseudonym Mansbestfriend. As reported by the emo-boy himself, the record should be expected to boast a far less poppy sound than his Anticon material.

"The music was made purely for fun," says Morr, "with an experimental spirit." And Sole definitely did his fair share of experimenting. "I have more fun making this kind of stuff. It's a very fulfilling experience for me, because I never know what I'm going to get... I just get some coffee, bang on equipment and then 10 hours later I have a song." The equipment in question included a plethora of shitty guitars, broken reel-to-reels, rusted keyboards and overcompressed Radio Shack mics. Junk-hop, kids. Ain't no "emo" here.

Recorded partly in his old Oakland apartment, Sole recorded near-fully realized songs on his G4 then invited a host of Anticon's finest to come in and exact the finishing touches. "At the end I would have Jel come in and play drums on a few songs," said Sole. "Dose played keyboards on one track and Telephone Jim Jesus played guitar on another. Nosdam added a few basslines, mixed most of the songs and helped me realize the project." Tracklist:

01 Class Action Suit Against Earth
02 Victim Idol
03 How To Be Rich N Powerful
04 Ode To Clean Air
05 Little Bank Anthem
06 No Thanks
07 The Devil's A Traveling Man
08 Numb
09 Dream About Afghanistan or Oakland
10 Form + Prime Matter = Substance
11 Be Happy
12 Attack Russia
13 Poor Is Cool
14 Dream I Had On 25th Birthday
15 Great Open Grey
16 If You Don't Like My Music

In order to stir up excitement for the record, Sole has mapped out a European tour for the tail end of February and the head of March. Later that month, he'll be taking a hip-hop crack at the Mediterranean, playing shows in Bosnia, Israel, and Greece, among others. What's more, Sole reports that in June he'll be taking a lap around north and eastern Europe-- touring Russia, Poland, Germany, and Switzerland. Currently, though, he has no plans of touring the states before the fall. Dates:

02-24 Lisbon, Portugal - Ze Dos Bois
02-26 Vigo, Spain - Vademecm
02-27 Madrid, Spain - Low Bar
02-28 Barcelona, Spain - Classe
03-02 Toulouse, France - TBA
03-03 Perpignan/Montpellier, France - TBA
03-04 Marseille, France - TBA
03-05 Nice, France - TBA
03-06 Milan, Italy - Bloom
03-09 Ljubljana, Slovenia - TBA
03-10 Zagreb, Croatia - Mochvara
03-12 Murska Sobota, Slovenia - Mikk
03-13 Banja Luka, Bosnia - TBA
03-17 Beograd, Yugoslavia - Dom Omladine
03-18 Sofia, Bulgaria - TBA
03-19 Thessaloniki, Greece - TBA
03-21 Athens, Athens - TBA
03-25 Israel - TBA
03-26 Israel - TBA