Factor is someone who makes really good music and you should know about him.
Jun 25, 2010, 2:37 PM | Updated: Apr 5, 2011, 7:46 pm
Recently, I’ve been listening to this album called Lawson Graham from Canadian hip hop producer Factor and I absolutely love this thing. . Factor has been around for the past ten years or so producing beats for lots of independent hip hop artists such as Awol One, Myka 9, Moka Only, Busdriver and Pigeon John to name a few. I had not heard of any of these folks before finding out about Factor and I must say that I will be looking into them soon enough. The album is dedicated to Factor’s grandfather, Lawson Graham and features lots of guest vocals sprinkled throughout the record from acts he’s worked with closely in the past, most being his label mates from . The album begins with the track ‘Bengough Station’, an eerie soundscape of pouring rain, thunderous skies, a lone dog barking in the distance and probably the rolling down the tracks. We follow the Midnight Meat Train to the next stop which is a hauntingly beautiful song called ‘Missed the Train’ ft. Gregory Pepper. If the chorus alone doesn’t melt your heart strings then you have no soul. As the train rolls on past ‘Living in a Vacuum’ ft. Sole & Radical Face, which blends raw, raspy vocal rhymes with a mellow swirl of guitar and a dreamy vocal chorus we come upon one track that seems a bit out of place. It’s called ‘Oh Oh Andy’ ft. Nomad and it’s a straight up pop number that sounds like it could be a lost track from MGMT’s latest record Congratulations. It did however make me think of other collaborative albums that feature seemingly random teams of sounds and artists like The BPA or N.A.S.A. which I absolutely adore and figured Factor was on the right path.
For the most part the record is soaked in hip hop flavor and with the addition of a few indie pop sounding tracks you’ve got yourself an eclectic and really well rounded record that will probably satisfy any music head that can appreciate throwing a bunch of seemingly random components together to make an enjoyable cohesive whole.
sean.