Surrounded By Silence - Prefuse 73
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Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

  • Summary: Scott Herren's latest Prefuse 73 album features about as many guest appearances as you can fit on a single compact disc, including contributions from The Books, El-P, Ghostface, Aesop Rock, Broadcast, RZA, Beans and Café Tacuba.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 21
  2. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. A must-hear. [May 2005, p.138]
  2. The album is diverse and slows up where it should.
  3. The jewel in Scott's creative crown is that he has an uncanny knack of keeping it flowing, even when his beats and tones are jerking our sensibilities to shreds with their cerebral madness.
  4. Will only sound sweeter as summer draws nearer. [19 Mar 2005, p.59]

See all 21 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 8
  2. Negative: 1 out of 8
  1. MCTravel
    10
    Critics tend to undervalue the immense amount of work that clearly goes into Prefuse 73's albums. Anyone with any experience with digital music-making is rightfully placed in awe by the apparantly grueling, painstakingly minute cutting, pasting and arranging that go into these recordings. What's more, the songs maintain a beautifully and listenable melodic quality unmatched by many of Prefuse's electronic contemporaries. This album is clearly the evolution of years of hard work and experience on Herren's part. The songs are beautiful, and with headphones on, practically exasperating in their compexity. It may be a little more than the average listener can handle. For the same reason I don't expect my little sister to like it when I play Aphex Twin in my car stereo, I can understand why many reviewers don't like it. Travel. Expand
  2. ChrisF
    10
    Scott develops his greatest snapshot portrait of hip hop here and in the process proves that all the mainstream music around him just adds up to silence. Expand
  3. matta
    8
    Sure it's weaker than his last album, but it's not a 71 weak. There are some fantastic tracks on here, but some of the collaborations were disappointing. I was excited for Hide Ya Face, and while it is good, it pales in comparison to Plastic from One Word Exstinguisher. Also, the instrumental numbers here aren't as good as they were on One Word. It just doesn't sound like as much time went into this one, and Herren attempted to hide that my including a plethora of guests. As much as I'm being critical, I did really enjoy the album and it's in my top 25 of the year so far. Best track-Pagina Dos with The Books guesting. Expand
  4. PaperCut
    4
    Pretty crappy work. Basically he mixes a few of his favorite artists over edgy glitch sounds, and it just doesn't react. Ghostface's verse from Hideyaface is ill on it's own,, and isn't really complemented by the beat, like a wanna be DJ mixtape exclusive. Favorite non-collab is minutes away without you (a reworking of 5 minutes away from Vocal Studies and Uprock Narratives). Certainly not much originality here. Expand

See all 8 User Reviews