Album Review: Revelator by ELUCID
ELUCID explores societal acceptance of debasement and brutality.
On his third studio LP, ELUCID launches onto a daring new sound, seeking to distinguish his individual artistry amid growing recognition for his collaborative work. Following the comparatively mellow I Told Bessie in 2022, he digs deeper into an atmosphere of chaos, embracing experimental electronics and dissonant sample bursts. Much of the album was crafted alongside co-producer Jon Nellen, whose background in avant-garde and Indian classical music deeply influenced the project’s direction. With the haywire, August Fanon produced “CCTV” and topsy-turvy “In the Shadow of If,” ELUCID’s relentless rhythmic delivery and Nellen’s plodding beat perfectly balances introspective depth with haunting immediacy and pondering, leaving with more questions than answers about the nature of knowledge and existence.
“The World Is Dog,” the album’s lead single, abridges this bold approach further. The track unleashes punishing textures and free-falling tonality with a driving breakbeat that cuts in and out abruptly. Avant-jazz bassist Luke Stewart, a recurring contributor throughout the record, anchors the music just enough for ELUCID to navigate its precarious rhythms. In contrast to the prevailing trend of drumless loops and safe soul samples, Revelator takes risks akin to a high-wire act without a safety net. In the glitchy, drum-heavy “Slum of a Disregard,” the recurring phrase “Black mold, Black lung, Black child, no callback” symbolically ties environmental decay to social injustices, suggesting a cyclic neglect that permeates his reality. The songs subtly grapple with themes of societal dissolution and disenfranchisement, domestically and globally, reflecting on harsh political realities and international conflicts.
ELUCID’s journey to this point began in the mid-2000s when he emerged as a prominent figure in New York’s underground scene. Challenging norms from the outset, he favored glitchy noise experiments and bass-heavy culture jamming over the nostalgic charm of his contemporaries. “14.4” melds abstract thought with visceral reality cascade through reflections on identity, as he and SKECH185 offer a critical lens on issues of power dynamics and police brutality. While he initially collaborated with groups like Tanya Morgan, his personal musical direction quickly diverged. His formal introduction came with the 2016 release of Save Yourself. Collaborations with billy woods as Armand Hammer have garnered significant attention and acclaim.
Eager to push the hip-hop genre forward, ELUCID embraced new challenges by venturing deeper into live instrumentation—“getting my Quincy Jones on,” as he describes it. This venture was first evident in Armand Hammer’s recent project, 2023’s We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, characterized by sinuous soundscapes enriched with instrumental layers and evolving beat progressions. He pushes these concepts further with Revelator, crafting an album that straddles multiple genres and showcases his commitment to artistic evolution. As their chemistry proves in “Instant Transfer,” ELUCID suggests a world where reality and virtual perceptions blur, reflecting on the timings of fate and the questioning of power dynamics. woods channels a sense of retrospective cynicism as he ruminates about street life, with striking phrases like ‘I swirled a mouth full of lies, savoring the texture.’
“Xolo” unfolds like a stream-of-consciousness mosaic of vivid imagery and introspective reflections, intertwining themes of urban existence, memory, and existential contemplation. ELUCID’s wordplay and symbolism are fully displayed as he describes a “corner florist fell asleep with his mouth open,” painting a surreal cityscape where mundane moments take on new, profound significance. His survey of identity and societal observations finds expression in lines such as “Theoretical niggas on the run eatin’/Who the sun seekin’,” which juxtapose existential musings with stark reality. He interlaces vivid storytelling with striking introspection in “Ikebana,” “Yottabyte,” and “Voice 2 Skull.” His reflection on identity and existence with the latter track is mirrored through layered imagery, as seen in “Chess pieces to the checkerboard, life-size.”
On “Bad Pollen,” ELUCID opens with a meditation on his “traveler” existence, a journey saturated with themes of fatigue, violence, and the ominous weight of an unending cycle of vengeance and survival, and metaphorically expresses the burdens he carries, scarred by conflict and the ceaseless yearning for meaning. Meanwhile, billy woods’ contribution is marked by a haunting sense of disillusionment and a struggle with identity amidst external assumptions. His reflections on relinquished ambition and the mechanical nature of performance reveal a man grappling with his place in the world, as captured in “Sent white men to collect my mechanicals/White men sent me to the stage/Perform mechanically.” These lines underscore the relentless cycle of exploitation and survival, with woods adopting a weary resolve to persist despite the malaise of repetitiveness and societal demands.
Most artists are shaped by the gravitational pull of their era, tethered to familiar territories. Yet some break free, molding culture as it unfolds, making the present unmistakably theirs. ELUCID is among these rare voices. “Hushpuppies” crackles with jittery energy from his production. This whimsical anomaly whisks us into the fragrant warmth of his grandparents’ kitchen, where oil sizzles and Friday night fish fries are a cherished ritual, as also detailed in “SKP.” On DJ Haram’s insistent experimental closer “Zigzagzig,” ELUCID channels his ardent stance on the Gaza conflict into potent lyrics, standing in solidarity with Palestinian freedom. He declares, “Feed a war machine…from river to sea, in lieu of peace.” ELUCID crafts a unique musical masterpiece, plumbing the depths of our fractured modern world. Revelation arrives when veils lift and truths hidden in plain sight sharpen into focus.
Standout (★★★★½)
Favorite Track(s): “Bad Pollen,” “Slum of a Disregard,” “Voice 2 Skull,” “Zigzagzig”