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Over the past year there's been a growing trend for smaller labels to release free EPs in an attempt to adapt to the new reality of the music business in the age of bitterrorism and filesharing. It's a trend that every music fan can get behind, of course, but too often you get what you pay for with these free releases, as many of them are comprised of songs that would barely rise to the level of album filler on an official release. That's not the case with Baje One's The Weightless EP, a joint release from Def Jux and embeddedmusic, as the six featured tracks are about as good as any of the songs that made the cut for his group Junk Science's two previous albums.
Baje One, assisted by fellow Brooklynites Mercury and Starpower, ventures into somewhat more serious territory than on his previous work with Junk Science, with one song focusing on the war in Iraq and the current state of the U.S., while another song finds him contemplating his own career as a musician. He keeps things from getting too dark by occasionally dropping in spaced-out metaphors and non-sequiturs (keep an ear out for his reference to the Trix rabbit), however, and the beats for the most part stay upbeat. After getting through the twenty-minute EP, I felt like I had just heard the A-side of what was going to be a great album. It's almost too bad that Baje didn't just bang out a full album, even if it would have meant charging for it. As it is, this is a really good, if all-too-brief, solo effort. Hopefully by giving it out for free, Baje will finally garner some much deserved attention for Junk Science.
My two favorite tracks from The Weightless EP:
Baje One - Weightless featuring Mercury
Baje One - I (No) O U
To download the full EP for free, head over to the definitive jux site. You'll have to create an account to get to the download link, but it's well worth the 30 seconds it will take to fill out the form. Shoutout to my man Brandon for letting us put up the tracks.
Baje One's group Junk Science has been featured a few times in the past. For more of their music, check out our previous articles:
Junk Science - Quit Your Day Job
Junk Science - Hey!
For even more from Baje One, hit up his MySpace page.
2/26/2007 07:00:01 PM posted by Fresh