Saturn in the Basement is a second helping of tracks collected from the lengthy catalog of improvised recordings by Washington, D.C. hip-hop anarchists
Model Home, following 2020's One Year. Focusing on releases 11 through 18 in their self-issued series, this LP gathers some of the duo's wildest material, with the first handful of tracks all being short bursts of scrambled vocals and spluttering electronics. Opener "pidgin" approximates a warped footwork rhythm, and vocalist NAPPYNAPPA seems to give a shout out to
DJ Nate at one point. Slower but no less scattered is the winding, burbling "couch" and the relatively calm "false reign," which layers a thick coat of distortion over twinkling melodies. A previously unreleased collaboration with Japanese experimental icon
Phew, "naked intentions," balances ticking Casio beats atop a rapid current of buzzing electronics, with NAPPYNAPPA trying his hardest not to get swept up in a whirlpool. This is followed by "yard 1," a 13-minute blowout that starts out vaguely resembling lo-fi space disco before quickly shifting the tempo and zoning ever outward. NAPPYNAPPA struggles to be heard over the scattered drums and thundering bass of "big deluge." Even on the album's most stripped-down track, "thank u," the vocals are no less obscured, sounding as if they've been crushed on the floor.
Model Home's rapidly expanding discography can be hard to navigate, but it's full of truly visionary work, and the releases on Disciples do an excellent job at showcasing the duo's boundless creativity. ~ Paul Simpson