For a long time during my childhood I was addicted to video games; and one in particular I was always ravenous in my consumption with was Final Fantasy. I played those games to death, man. But slowly yet surely as I grew older I began to stop buying them as they came out (I think, maybe IX was the first I actually didn't buy) which of course I told myself just had to do with me getting older, and perhaps just naturally falling out of love with those kind of games...In a similar vein to this new release by T.S.T.. the already infamous Volume 2... I used to listen to everything related to alternative hip-hop; from the slightly funk-oriented acts of years past like De La Soul and Digital Underground, to acts more around my generation such as Gorillaz and Aesop Rock.. Something about the cultural instinct to pull back and the overarching tide of the popularity of mainstream "gangsta-rap" appealed to me on a very deep level. Imagine, why would any group make music that doesn't sound like whatever else is on the radio? It's a thought that drew me towards it from a very young age.. But yet again, slowly but surely as time past, I began to fade away of the simple pleasures of of crisp beats surrounded by lush atmosphere, and ended being drawn towards more heavier genres as I grew older..
Now, I know what you must be thinking; why is this kid giving me his fucking biography?
I CAME HERE TO HEAR ABOUT VOLUME 2 DAMN IT
Well, it's all tied together my friend ^__^ because when I sat down to listen to this beat-tape in full; reintroducing myself to the world of the experimental soundwaves that Shrnk, JTTG and M2 delve into so richly, I also happened to start a playthrough of Square Enix's (the makers of Final Fantasy) brand new game out in the states, Bravely Default.
So while playing through this throwback classic role-playing adventure game and listening to all of my recent favorites from the Temple kids (you can read my reviews for two of my favorites Insanity and Someone Like You) I realized something: Most of the things that we loved as children, we loved because they touched a very instinctual part of who we are as cultural beings. It's not always necessarily because "we simply got older" that we fell out love for them, many times it's other much more obscure little reasons that drift us away, andbelieve it or not it is possible to come back to these past pleasures.
So while you really shouldn't need any convincing to give this tape a listen, let me make a small suggestion (it may sound kinda hipster-y, so you don't have to.... but you should) before you go on this journey through the spatial textures of the shaolin ;) do yourself a favor and listen to it doing something you love, perhaps even something you've loved in years past. Because I feel in essence that's what this album reciprocates to the listener; love from time since past.
