AyGeeTee – Is It Safe? (2011) [Amdiscs] // Grade: B+

I’m late on this one too. Thank our impotent POTUS Barack Obama for that one. Spending 5 weeks on a mountain without internet will take you outta the loop for sure. But, lucky for me AyGeeTee only deals in infinity, so promptness isn’t phasing anything. It’s a crazy time. Releases tend to have a shelf life of roughly 1-2 weeks. Mostly because only 1% of bloggers actually talk about the music they blog. It is what it is, neither bad nor good, but it means that no on really has a huge impact with a release. The strength of a record is gonna rest on the ensuing 4,5,6,7…months. I mean look at Danny Brown. It was a slow build. Upon its release XXX flew under a lot of radars, but because the music dealt in some heavy aural infinity, he’s seen a growing enthusiasm for the record.

Personally, I was sold ont his record before I heard it. I first found out about AGT last year when I stumbled on Soul. over at the AM Discs blog. Soul. was my introduction to a dude who clearly has a very diverse ear, and a very well-developed method for translating incredible possibilities in sound to real incredible music. Soul. was an ethereal, but somewhat hectic, and hyper record. It worked out brilliantly, but the vibe was very different from what he’s done on Is It Safe? (I like how he uses punctuation in his titles. it’s an underrated concept). The most erratic moments on IIS sound very similar to Soul. but the overall tone of the album is so much more serene, and it just pulls me way deeper into it.

These are very very cloudish soundscapes. I can see the ether seeping out of the sides of my laptop as I type this. I’m not kidding at all. When you reach the kind of Wizard Levels that AGT is on, it’s not a surprise if the music makes more than sound come out of the speakers. And with roughly 80 minutes of music on here, it’s likely to fill up your whole car, room, or house before you finish it. And even though it’s a lengthy listen AGT’s infinitely varied methods won’t leave you feeling like you’re drowning. As the music washes over you there are so many different pieces to pick out that it’s almost like a choose your own adventure album. From this sea of sound that AGT has drafted you get to hop from current to current experiencing the music at a number of different resolutions, and focusing from a number of perspectives. You might find yourself floating at the surface one moment, and the next moment you’ve been swallowed so deep into the tunes that you can’t see the light.

- Zachg