Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Dropping Science

There are few things in the realm of geeky hip-hop that surprise me anymore. Concept album about a rural police department? Sure. West Coast Avengers mixtape? Why the fuck not?!

Still, when I received a recent message from The Ranger urging me to check out the first track from his new project The Saganites I was astonished. Ranger himself has been known to rhyme about everything from D&D to genetically modified crops and the Far East skin trade, so hearing him wax poetic about Sagan's Cosmos doesn't exactly seem out of character. The same can be said for Pelicaine Einhander, a Texas-based beatsmith whose eclecticism is only overshadowed by his own inexhaustible productivity.

It wasn't the players themselves that took me by surprise, nor was it the care they obviously took in crafting such a sweeping piece about the award-winning series. Instead it was the simple fact that a track had at last supplanted "A Glorious Dawn" as my new favorite piece of science-centered music.

The Saganites have plans to expand the idea into a 13-song album, one for each episode of the original series. If we're lucky, a proper Bandcamp release won't be far behind.