Tim Holland, aka co-founder of anticon records, aka
Sole, aka Mansbestfriend, is a talented musician, both as a rapper and as a producer, able to make provocative, intelligent beats and rhymes that sound very little like those heard in more traditional hip-hop. But this release, his fifth under the moniker Mansbestfriend (and first released explicitly with anticon), is a dismal, electronic-leaning set that moves around sloshily without much heed for reason or direction. Initially, it seems as if
Poly.Sci.187 is going to take a socio-political course, and the opening track, "Dedemma Speaks," samples an interview with famed anarchist Emma Goldman, and there are hints of the artist's political beliefs scattered throughout -- "Missile Defense," "Spin the Humans," which begins with a Lebanese boy talking about how his family had to escape during the 2006 bombing -- but more often than not the album seems unfocused and random, as if it was produced without much thought or consideration, only later, after all was said and done, was it given a theme. The record's production is messy and distracted, never quite deciding what it actually wants to do, trying too much and too little at the same time, and since this is, for all practical consideration, an instrumental (
Sole lays down and samples his own vocal tracks a few times, but the words are always low in the mix), this lack of attention to actual purpose detracts from it greatly.
Poly.Sci.187 can't quite decide what it wants to be, if it wants to make a statement or just sit softly in the background, and because of this, ends up being something that doesn't say or do anything at all. ~ Marisa Brown