Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3

Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 is El-P at his weirdest and finest, a dystopian symphony of other-worldly drums, funk horns, and brilliantly-culled samples.

For any bootlegging rappers with cerebral ambitions, this could represent the greatest thinking man's beat tape of all time. To mere listeners, it's an enveloping temporary distraction, more than fulfilling its purpose of whetting anticipation for El-P's mic-wielding return.

The mix's most pleasing moments and its most successful don't usually overlap: some of the beats are fresh, some of the basslines impeccable, but it's the extramusical sensations, those slithering intimations of robotic insects rooting through the garbage for your financial information, that make this worth engaging with on his terms, not your own.

With double-time beats, Trent Reznor-level distortion, lost-in-the-matrix digital doodles, and the occasional gunshot, megamixxx3 works like a headbanger companion to El's 2007 album, I'll Sleep When You're Dead-soaring, paranoid, and ghoulish.

While Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 had all the indications of starting out as a stopgap project to stave off between-album downtime, it wound up being a solid exhibition of his chops.

It would be more fitting to say Hell3 is an album that challenges conventional understanding of WHAT beginnings and endings are, leaving it up to the listener to draw their own conclusions, and that's what makes Hell3 both interesting and frustrating--but far moreso of the former than the latter.

It's the kind of release that will keep longtime fans happy, and acts as a welcoming primer to new ears, inviting them to join El-P on his side of the line before exposing them to his harsher, more eye-opening material.

This album of instrumental sketches is surprisingly bullish, its snotty distorted synths and chiptune funk melodies aligning El-P unexpectedly with the output of young UK producers Joker and Rustie.

Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 is a logical progression from his hectic early work as genres like dubstep and grime have since appeared to increase the pressure. Extended runs of uptempo numbers are something new for the man, and the album refuses to chill until it takes a breather on track six

For those of us who hadn't got our hands on the earlier mixtapes or his remixes for the likes of Blackalicious and Rob Sonic, Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 is an opportunity to assess El-P as a beatmaker on his own merits.

He over-thought most of the tracks, failing to maintain focus on or fully develop any particular theme. Various elements drop in and out at terse intervals, presenting an idea for just enough time to intern it before moving on. But El-P has always had a theatrical flair, creating music that transports you to another place and time, and several tracks here do suck you into his demonic hip-hop underworld.

Peripheral issues aside, if you temper your expectations and just concentrate on the music coming out of your speakers, you're going to enjoy this edition of the Megamixxx series. It's not Donuts, and it's certainly not Fantastic Damage, but it's a fine piece of work from a producer whose demand far exceeds his supply.

Ultimately, though, one crucial element is missing: El-P's voice. His desperate, throbbing-forehead-vein rapping is as vital as his sound as the synths or the beats, and this disc would have been vastly improved by even one bilious verse. [Aug 2010, p.61]

This instrumental mixtape isn't Jaime Meline's best work, but there's no denying the manic intensity as Meline's machine-gun edits cut together old-school electro and spooked Hammond grooves. [Sept. 2010, p. 117]