Track Listing

1. I've Said All I Need to Say About Them (Intro)
2. Hideyaface. Featuring - Ghostface and El-p
3. Bad Memory Interlude One
4. Ty Versus Detchibe. Featuring - Tyondai Braxton
5. Expressing Views Is Obviously Illegal
6. Pastel Assassins. Featuring - Claudia + Alejandra Deheza
7. Pagina Dos. Featuring - The Books
8. Silencio Interlude
9. Now You're Leaving. Featuring – Camu
10. Gratis. Pedro Versus Prefuse
11. We Go Our Own Way. Featuring – Kazu (Blonde Redhead)
12. Mantra Two. Featuring - Tyondai Braxton
13. Sabbatical With Options. Featuring - Aesop Rock
14. It's Crowded. Featuring - Claudia Deheza
15. Just the Thought. Featuring - Masta Killa + GZA
16. La Correccion Exchange. Featuring - D.J. Nobody
17. Hideyaface Reprise. Reminder Version
18. Morale Crusher. Featuring – Beans
19. Minutes Away Without You
20. Rain Edit Interlude
21. And I’m Gone. Featuring - Prefuse Versus Piano Overlord Versus Broadcast Versus Cafe Tacuba

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58360 in Music
• Released on: 2005-03-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Surrounded By Silence should have been re-titled Bedroom Producer Gone Wild. What’s not to adore about laptop sound alchemist Prefuse 73 (Scott Herren), who, like RJD2 and Diplo, crafts rare soundscapes that Bjork fans, backpack rap dukes and Pluto natives adore. But what happens when such sonic experiments go slightly awry? Unlike Vocal Studies, where there appeared to be some cohesive links between tracks, Prefuse goes a bit collabo crazy here, with over a dozen multi-genre guest vocalists and emcee’s, with mixed results. When the unlikely duo of Ghostface and El P jump on "Hideyaface", they sound unfocused over Herrens audio clutter, as does the Masta Killa and GZA fuelled "Just The Thought". Was Surrounded Herren’s license to indulge his inner RZA or Def Jux (Aesop Rock and Beans also guest)? Perhaps. But when Herren sticks to what he does best, that is, building brilliant found sound collages, and digitizing any thing he can get his hands on, the results are gorgeous; "Expressing Views Is Obviously Illegal" carries that distinctly Prefuse-esque boom bip, as does "Pagina Dos" with it’s seductive banjo playing parts. When he teams his beats up with New York electro indie rock scenesters Claudia and Alejandra Deheza from On!Air!Library! on "Pastel Assasins" or Blonde Redhead’s Kazu in "We Go Our Own Way", the tracks breathe much better. An uneven yet stimulating listen. --Dalton Higgins

CD Description
On the ambitious SURROUNDED BY SILENCE, producer Scott Herren fully embraces his inner hip-hop tendencies to deliver a sprawling, guest-laden release. A 21-track opus, SURROUNDED BY SILENCE features appearances from celebrated New York MCsGhostface and El-P (on album standout "Hide Ya Face"), Masta Killa and GZA ("Just the Thought"), and Beans ("Morale Crusher").
Fortunately, for fans of the Prefuse 73 tag, Herren doesn't completely abandon his past formula. Instrumentaltracks such as "Expressing Views Is Obviously Illegal" and "Minutes Away Without You", where Herren loses himself in anatmospheric world of jazz and glitch-hop, recall the sound of ONE WORD EXTINGUISHER. Furthermore, Herren recruits female vocalists to add yet another dimension to the proceedings.Claudia and Alejandra De Heza of On!Air!Library! ("Pastel Assassins" and "It's Crowded") and Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead ("We Got Our Own Way") use their distinctive voices to create some of the most melodic tracks Herren has produced. SURROUNDED BY SILENCE is a dense, almost overwhelming releaseat first, but listeners who exercise patience are certain to be rewarded.

Customer Reviews

Listen up Pharrell
After an initial lot of hot bother over his One Word Extinguisher LP, it was starting to seem that Scott Herren's (aka Prefuse 73) distinctly jarring style of spasmodic hip hop had nowhere left to go. His last set of releases and remixes indicated that his music was running out of things to say except show off that impressive programming technique. One reviewer was wondering if it was now just a pre-set on his computer. In short, he was becoming a victim of his own innovation.

Or at least he would have been, had he not moved to Barcelona, met the singer Eva Pueylo and made some sweet, sad Catalan songs under the alias of Savath and Savalas. The albums he made under this guise (Aprop'at and Manana) had no bearing on his Prefuse methods. This seems to have totally reinvigorated his Prefuse work, and given him a chance to see it from an outside perspective, perhaps to get less overwhelmed by those juttering beats and to let the melodies shine through more, to think more about song writing in an old fashioned sense.

I say all this because this is exactly what Surrounded by Silence sounds like. It is an excellent record. Even better than One Word Extinguisher, which in comparison seems limited in scope. Prefuse has got the big guns out for this LP, and must be determined that his sound be heard by a wider audience. Just look at the collaborations: Ghostface, Masta Killah, GZA, TY. Big hip hop names who clearly have an appreciation for Prefuse's methods (not so surprising, a glance at One Word's sleevenotes show that Destiny's Child are fans of Herren's music).

But this is not just a celebrity guest record. Herren has clearly put a lot of hard work and emotion into this record. Its filled with great songwriting which uses his bleeps and crunches at the service of the music and not the other way round. A 60's and 70's approach to soul and pop comes through in the horns, folk samples and psychedelic backing vocals. At the same time, the record sounds more like old Detroit Techno. It builds it electronic loops and synth beats up rather than throw them around in the blender as soon as you've heard them.

Alright, put it more simply: The styles on this record range from hip hop to latin to folk and electronica. Yet it all sounds like only one man could have made it. It all works brilliantly, and is so accessible while keeping its identity that you wonder if Herren might just succeed in getting a bigger audience for his work. It probably won't do to the extent that you'd hope, but he may just join his friend RJD2 in attaining a DJ Shadow like level of popularity. Lets just hope Pharrell Williams hears this record: a fan of Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, this would be right up his alley. Then people may start to listen.

One of my top CDs of 2005 at the mo
This has been one of the joys of the year for me. Repeatedly finding its way into my CD player, I've not got bored of this album at all. In fact, with each listen it gets better and better, sounding fresher and more brilliant the more I hit the play button.

I like to think of this as hip hop as seen through the eyes of Autechre's Gantz Graf machine. The opening few tracks of the album treat you to some intricate splintered samples that fly around your ears. Expertly produced so that it doesn't sound like a jumbled mess, the Prefuse 73 mastery of samples comes from a different school of thought to the seamlessly slick RJD2 and DJ Shadow. Samples fly in like ricocheting bullets, tearing through in reverse before timestretching away into the distance. I love the way the tracks crash into each other, almost like when you flick round radio stations quickly to be confronted by a bit of country and western before a crackle of static occurs and switch to another genre hits you. Its sometime surreal but highly compelling, it has the cLOUDDEAD ideal that any noise is worthy sample material and it can be treated in any way Mr Prefuse sees fit. Things like taking the 'groany moany' adlibbing from a vocalists singing and piecing it together in a bizarre rhymic melody, classy and original. Plus you get the perfect split between the instrumental experimentalism and the slightly more straight laced MC led tracks featuring the likes of Aesop Rock.

With the sun starting to make its presence known, this is a perfect album for the summer vibe. It has the ability to hold your attention from album beginning to album end, catching you up in soaring walls of sound and laid back grooves. A top one this and no mistake.

my new favourite: next-level music from Prefuse 73
bought this this week, as already love Scott Herren's "Uprock Narratives" debut lp (see my review also),and having read other reviews on amazon - thought why not, and YES, this is EVEN BETTER than that groundbreaking lp. here as stated elsewhere - Mr.H's travels have been inspirational in adding a wonderful extra layer of digitally edited vocal melody from several female guest singers as well a the expected rappers (sorry to lazy to list them all...) adding them to an already heady mixture of psychedelic,hip-hop beats,lovely electronica + vocals. an even more intriguing sound world clash between four tet type beats/sounds,digital edits and many glorious vocal harmonies, with nothing outstaying its welcome.

not keen on the album cover, but "Surrounded by Silence" from 2005 is musically - absolutely stunning !