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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
One Word Extinguisher
Universal acclaim
Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Warp
Release Date: 06 May 2003
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Electronic, Hip Hop
Summary
Underground producer Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73) offers his second LP for Warp, which mixes experimental glitchtronica with more accessible hip-hop elements (including vocals on a few tracks provided by guests such as Mr. Lif).
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Also On The Web: Warp Records
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Pitchfork
One Word Extinguisher shows a range of emotional grappling usually foreign to instrumental hip-hop.
Read Full Review >Uncut
An endlessly fascinating maze of sound.... This decade's Endtroducing..., possibly. [Jun 2003, p.98]
All Music Guide
A set of electronica that's nearly as challenging as Autechre's relentlessly academic beat manipulation but just as funky and instantly gratifying as a Fatboy Slim flag-waver.
Read Full Review >The Wire
Isn't so much a leftfield perversion of HipHop as it is a restoration of the genre to its avant garde roots. [#231, p.67]
Dusted Magazine
This record is a wonderful accomplishment – instead of relying on tricks and methods explored on earlier records, Herren expands via reflection, tracing sounds back to their roots in hopes of finding a new path.
Read Full Review >Splendid
Herren takes what amounts to a series of completely artificial electronic noises and whips them into one of the most soulful, funky, relentlessly compelling albums since the Neptunes' last outing.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
Perhaps the greatest expansion in Herren's sound is the range of emotion conveyed in One Word Extinguisher.
Read Full Review >Spin
It's a busy, dazzling record, though more detours--like "Storm Returns," a dreamy guitar-and-beats collage--would help aerate things. [Aug 2003, p.118]
ShakingThrough.net
At 23 tracks (including two strong bonus cuts at the end), One Word Extinguisher simply tries to say too much, dragging noticeably during the final third, thus weakening the final impact.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Sounds like a malfunctioning iPod loaded with The Neptunes, Aphex Twin circa Windowlicker and The Last Poets--only with all the fragments miraculously falling in just the right places. [Jun 2003, p.104]
Village Voice
The rhythms have grown more techy and layered, wilding with drill-happy 16ths (on "Busy Signal," he and L.A.'s like-minded Daedalus cut up a human beatbox then go machine-gunning with piano notes), or throbbing and crackling out of an electronic ether (the radio-transmission lurch of "Detchibe") as though he's been studying glitchy Europeans.
Read Full Review >Mojo
The season's most deliriously funky beats. [Jun 2003, p.113]
Urb
Still more for headphones than headspins, but offering plenty for the heads. [#104, p.96]
Almost Cool
One Word Extinguisher opens and closes with a batch of great songs, but gets a bit soggy in the middle, treading similar ground several times over again and tossing out tracks that feel too similar to what we've already heard from him.
Read Full Review >Magnet
Playfulness ultimately wins over arty schlock. [#59, p.106]
Playlouder
Unlikely to be defined by any passing scene, Herren seems likely to go his merry way in the way production auteurs do, body-swerving ham-fisted attempts at pigeon-holing or categorisation.
Read Full Review >Vibe
Even if it doesn't always work, this is as imaginative an approach to hip hop production as the underground has ever generated. [June 2003, p.157]
Alternative Press
Original, brilliant and so avant-garde that less than one percent of the population will be able to sit through it. [Jun 2003, p.110]
Neumu.net
One Word Extinguisher doesn't shock the way Vocal Studies... did but, if his debut drew the vivid hip-hop/electronic blueprint, Herren convincingly takes his plans and constructs something big with the follow-up.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Lee gave it a10:
illest cd of his ive heard. He is the master of error and distortion on any moog.
matt a gave it a9:
Totally solid all the way throughout. Just wish there was some guest appearances because the tracks with vocals are all good.
mario gave it a9:
i m sure that it could be better as anything else but you can hear a bit of the future on this release i think and for me just for this it become better than many others
Bryan B gave it a 10:
This album has some of the most amazing beats I have ever heard.
Lawrence P gave it a 9:
It's funny that a eletro-hip-hop LP can have as much soul as a Otis Redding record.
Matt M gave it a 9:
Variegated and temperamental, this album never lets me down but doesn't fill me with a feeling of satisfaction that I really need to rate it a 10. That said, it's a damn fine 9 at least, with most of the individual tracks shining and keeping (against all odds) a coherent feel to the album. Gets better on repeated listens, and well worth $14. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the music so I can groove some more.
dudely gave it an 8:
A good cd, but not the quantum leap from Vocal Studies that I had hoped.
