Artist description Please listen to the music and decide for yourself.

Music Style poetical formless street electronica

Musical Influences Herbie Hancock, Melle Mel, Mccot Tyner, Rakim, Minnie Riperton, Lucky Thompson, John Coltrane, T. Monk, James Brown, Fela Kuti, Aritha Franklin & Miles Davis, etc.

Similar Artists NONE (Totally New Concepts)

Artist History The Brother El Biography Brother El's debut release Through the Cracks of Concrete displays the production skills of Chicago's stealthy pulse creeping with the breath of hip hop, the heartbeat of club respiration, the elusive first glance of a woman and the clashing fusion of South Side ghetto meeting ancestral roots. "Brother El lets you know you're not in for some whateva hip hop in first 10 seconds of this LP."--Elemental magazine Brother El embraces sounds threaded through hip hop verse and spoken word that he describes as an eclectic mix of electronica, hip hop and ambient styles laid upon an urban landscape. This same landscape allowed Brother El to cultivate his musical collaborations with Earatik Statik, a rap group that has performed at Chicago's House of Blues, Metro, Double Door, New York City's Soul Cafe and other venues. Earatik Statik opened the door for Brother El to share the stage with artists like Rakim, Xzibit, Kid Rock, Ice Cube, Alkaholiks and Kool Keith, one of Brother El's many musical influences when you hear the bombastic "Broken Dreams". "Imagine if Aceyalone spit spoken word taught by El-P from Company Flow and Beans from Antipop, then took a class in conceptual musicology with Paul D. Miller as a professor and had afterfuture man Mike Ladd string the beats, now mix these evenly and you're listening to Brother El." --The Burning Word, Chris Wiersema He credits music and his parents for steering him toward his creativity with sound while his neighborhood was crumbling from the aftermath of gangs, drugs, sex and poverty. When he was 11, Brother El's piano teacher Carol Browning percolated a foundation for his loves of the keyboard and collecting LP's. His influences range from Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz to his affinity for dead prez, Black Star and Ultra Magnetics. These voices of the African diaspora, past and present, filter through as a presence but Brother El's technique captures sighs of Chicago's elevated trains and pounds the pavement despite its cracks. He slips into the spaces between emcee categories with the sci-fi depiction of reality "Under Hypnosis" and mellow instrumentals. "State Street Rush" injects you into the traffic of downtown Chicago and mimics the underlying rhythms of people packed together on foot and in the streets. Yet he always returns to his hip hop roots, which erupted from Midwestern soil when he founded "The Hip Hop Project" at Loyola University Chicago's radio station WLUW 88.7 FM. "The Hip Hop Project" still airs every Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. with interviews from local and visiting hip hop artists and 4 hours of hip hop music -- music he crafts with thumping layers of bass like "Pay Close Attention" and "Fade It". On Brother El's Through the Cracks of Concrete, he takes us on a brother's journey to find balance in chaos. "Through Cracks of Concrete looks, smells and sounds like the future of Chicago hip-hop; push and pull word play, shadowy back drops. Sometimes movements work in whispers..."-- UR Chicago, Brad Cawn To find out more about Brother El, his production company The Beat Bank or Through the Cracks of Concrete, contact info@thebeatbank.net or 773-924-1495.

Group Members Brother El

Instruments Vintage Keyboards, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Percussion, etc.

Albums Lead producer of The Beat Bank

Press Reviews BROTHER El Through the Cracks of Concrete Album Reviews Urban Smarts Burning Word Rolling Stone Newcity Knowledge Magazine Illinois Entertainer Urban Smarts Through The Cracks Of Concrete This record is called "Through The Cracks Of Concrete" and the symbolism this has, is obvious, while still meaningful. Through the cracks of the concrete in our cities, usually a plant is allowed to grow. May it be simple grass, a weed or a colorful flower. This is natures graffiti in this gray world, the color spots that make all the difference. The question now is though, if the cracks allows the plants to grow, or if the plants forces the cracks, so that they can blossom. And if we adopt this picture to the momentary state of hip hop, where there is a great gray mass, and only few records are able to stand out, to grasp our attention through the concrete of mediocrity, the question can also be asked, if the mass allows them to appear, or if the special records force themselves through the predictable boring majority. In any case, this record is one of those flowers that unfolds in the face of the sun and take us out of the regularly of the same old same old routine. The gardener, so to say, goes by the name of Brother El. And showing that he has one of the greenest thumbs, he also did the production on each of the thirteen tracks on this record (plus a hidden gem). The album starts with a confusing combination of ghost like fog structures that are then combined with African percussion's, to make the track "Jungle Chant". This ceases quite quickly with coming on, where El first steps to the mic, and he opens his verse with "times so hard when dogs eat cat food / and cats don't eat 'cause cats can't compete". In a way, El is talking about the same things a thug and street rapper would do, him talking about walking up the stairs of a housing project building. The frustration and neglect one has to feel, not daring to touch anything, being grossed by the appearance this building has. But he keeps his eyes open in a very different way, with approaching it in telling us that we have to start to know (not even just believe) that this is not how things should be, rather than thinking about the self responsibility of others and the lack of available finances, that is hogged by some and needed by many. is keeping up the poeticism, but it combines it now with a stronger science fiction like beat. Just a little more animated, and separated from the spoken words by El, who's 'pacing but still patient'. We do are enjoying it better when it's more relaxing, relaxing at least to our ears, if not to our brain. But the structures of allow us to see as many mental pictures as we want to, with this not forcing anything on us, also due to El not speaking up, but just giving us a line to hum along. This track is the embodiment of such a plant among the concrete, with it being the hope within the world of despair and give ups, even when the angry strings are shortly reminding us of the hard rock we are trying to find some rest on. After El's pauses us, going about 'just gon' practice my breathing', he talks about the soul completion that he has found in the person that he's addressing with. Interested, in the least voyeuristic way, we are following his words, that we are allowed to hear, even though they are none of our business. There's still some anger in frustration. So "Protection Of The Child" is the weed growing through the hardness. Despite him not finding it needed to talk up, some toasting words are rolling over parts of the track, that are further put left side with ambient sound effects, that will be coming from unexpected places, but seem to be needed to make this track the completion it results to be. Co-writing "Fade It" with Pucali, this track goes the more traditional hip hop route with a ledge knowing bass being accompanied by an easy to miss clicking sound. Teaming up with Path on "Don't Hold Back", the only thing we're not being so keen on are the keyboard synth riffs, but the inspirational words on a 'if you can make the difference, please don't hold back' level are furthermore an expression of a street philosopher, that often does not bother to talk, because that does take away from the time he wants to utilize to think. Another guest appearance is following suit, with Larry Milla making a collaborative effort. He's urging you to put goggles in front of your third eye. The track remains being a conspired whisper that is oozing itself into your mind, with words of resistance, that are talking about the seventy percent of brain power, that is neglected, not realized and can be set into motion through simple reevaluation of the known. The beat is pacing in the slow speed the words are spoken in, and it actually reflects the title of the song, it being the pocket watch swinging in front of you, the light that burns an entry into your brain, that the hypnotist can use to open and shut it from the outside world. "State Street Rush" is a short instrumental interlude like track, before with, El steps to the mic again, to talk to us. And as said, El is a street reporter. And the topic of gangs appearing in this track, is definitely showing the Chicago background of this artist. The "Bonus Beat I" takes us through marching and raised fists sound crowds, it's only downfall being that it's the same from the beginning to the end. "Bonus Beat II" is falling victim to the same, but both tracks are quite short, and so don't have the time to grow annoying on you. There's also a 'Bonus Beat III', it just isn't credited, but hidden, some minutes into the last track. Gaining inspirations out of film soundtracks, this sounds like a chopped version of the main theme to the movie 'Princess Mononoke'. The track refuses to completely build to a finished off stature, but it mingles around like a cause that never can be finished, what again gets us back to where we started, and where we note that how ever hard you try to suppress natural growth within an artificial landscape of regulated and flattened rectangulars, there will always be the rebel like appearances, that ignore the surrounding that's build to hindrance the development. There's no way, in a world of erosion, of shaking continent plates, in a world of un-safeties and insecurities, that there will never be cracks in the concrete again, that let new, uncomfortable, honest and true thoughts grow. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Burning Word BROTHER EL "Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub; It is the center hole that makes it useful. Shape clay into a vessel; It is the space within that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows for a room; It is the holes which make it useful. Therefore profit comes from what is there; Usefulness from what is not there." -Lao Tsu From the Tao Te Ching Brother El Through the Cracks of the Concrete (The Beat Bank) The skyline over this big shouldered big brother city is, if seen with the right pair of optical apertures, a crackling synergy of collective ambient atmosphere exhaled from the lungs of every pavement pounder. Brother El, one of few Chicago hip-hop acts that isn't a knock off of one or another coastline, has those kind of eyes. He takes in this metaphysical aerospace all at once and breaks it down to a sonic landscape and an entirely neoteric language. His debut, self-produced album on The Beat Bank record label is an aberration from the archetype anything seen this or last year for that matter. It is the spectrum of the disc that slips like lakeshore sand through the toes of your mind until the overwhelming swell of its consolidated girth over takes you after the third listen. Instead of coming out with every gun blazing and all his cards on the table, Brother El steps back and allows the back draft suck the listener in. Rather than flying off and dropping the hardest beats and the treat rhymes and leave nothing for the afterglow, he lays down an instrumental swelling Jungle Chant that flickers with electric ambient intensity. It quickly leads the listener into the album with their guard down when the left-hook to the cerebellum, Pay Close Attention and Broken Dreams hits them. It follows a night-to-day beat melody and back beats that flow with the inlaying of a duel lyricism of El. Though the two follow a different flow cadence, the theme is one steady stream of thought. Like a good mentor, offering up his street credit as the sacrificial lamb. He sets the gambit for other listeners that, yep he's been there and no it is not an excuse for the thugly attitude. That direct mindset is what El's record is about, a compassionate understanding of the past, a hopeful nod to the future, and the way to get there. It is a rare gift to be able to meld these three aspects of hip-hop together, and it is the type of forward pragmatic thought that will save the genre from being hip-pop. With the heavy of subjects laid open, El moves the next three tracks (one vocal, two instrumental) deeper into the personal range of love, sex and a man's place in the prior two. It is rare to see sensitivity without thought to the novelty of the act. These tracks bleed with sincerity rarely seen and are the highlight of the album that will set it three years ahead of its time. This forward thinking married with the bridegroom of future progressive beats and stuttering half beats give way to a production scene-scape that El constructs and deconstructs into a manifestation of staggering travail. The flow of El is not to take a backseat to the vast terrain of his production; instead it activates the spaces. The rhyme cadence flows on different plains that push along the low-fi beats and fills those hollow points with rhyme scheme that side steps and fakes around the cliché formula with an effortless shrug. Imagine if Aceyalone spit spoken word taught by El-P from Company Flow of Beans from Antipop, took a class in conceptual musicology with Paul D. Miller as a professor, and had afterfuture man Mike Ladd string the beats together; now mix these evenly and your listening to Brother El. The ideal is more important at times than the fluidity of the verses, as well it should; beauty is amateur. El switches with the flow of the message; staggering off rhymes for ten bars and then switch to every other word as an alliteration. The effect is fresh, loose knit web of layers that keeps the listener from rushing through the sonic scenery he's laid out for you. The later portion of the album is the word play tracks that should soon become signals and the extra beats that are at home in batting clean up place. It is the placement of the six instrumentals that makes them substantial to the whole of the album. Coming before and after some of the more intense tracks, it leaves space for the listener to fill in the open expanse with their own reaction. Like that mentor that drops life-heavy lessons, then waits for the response, El confers the consumer with the responsibility to personalize these vacant verbal lots. Often hip-hop samples jazz loops, but sparse are the albums that trust the listener enough to sample jazz theory and not worry about simplifying it. This trend of "intelligent" hip-hop productions are becoming more plentiful with tilling of the accumulated topsoil of the urban fields, it warms me to no end to see such a strong root sprouting with this album. If this record is a warning shot of things to come from Brother El and The Beat Bank crew, be ready for the next explosion in hip-hop to come from Chicago. "Through the Cracks of the Concrete" hits stores in March and can be found on The Beat Bank site at www.thebeatbank.net Created: 2001-02-21 by Cris Wiersema ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Brother El Through the Cracks of Concrete (The Beat Bank) So far removed from any of today's trends in hip-hop, Brother El isn't an artist that's easy to pigeonhole. His productions -- as on the lead single, "Pay Close Attention" -- impart an unfinished simplicity that create the perfect landscape for El to make his imaginative thoughts audible. But his rapping style is not typically slick, flashy . . . or even all that comfortable to follow at times. Instead, his offbeat, chopped-up rhythmic flow may curtail the head bobbing, instead encouraging the listener to ponder the Chicago ghetto experience in stillness. When he's not rapping, El is crafting instrumental break beats -- such as "The Dark Room (After the Foreplay)," "Protection of the Child" or "Under Hypnosis" (featuring the spoken-word of Larry Milla) -- that abduct and seduce with ambient and trance-like layers of keyboard surrealism. Although Brother El's lyrics are defined by his crime-infested concrete upbringing, it's clear that he's really trying to escape the mess on "It's Amazing" and pursue his quest for love on the flute-filtered "I Just Wanna Hold Your Hand" -- the only two cuts that groove with soulful familiarity. If you file by style, you will definitely have to build a new shelf to categorize Through the Cracks of Concrete. (MARLON REGIS) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Underground El While Sunday evening's show at the Metro features the self-proclaimed leaders of hip-hop's new underground, none of them have got shit on local Chicago hip hopper Brother El, whose "Through the Cracks of Concrete" (Beat Bank) has become Raw Material's early frontrunner for best record of 2001. Combining moody, dark and often surreal versions of ambient hip hop and dub, Brother El (known locally as the guy who runs the "Hip Hop Project" on WLUW every Saturday at 7:30pm) drops a new rhythm structure into his rhymes on virtually every track; some songs are closer to spoken-word poetry than hip hop in the strictest definition. Although I hesitate to drop the word, "genius" comes to mind every time I hear the arrangements of the short, to-the-point "Jungle Chant," the broken sample method on "Pay Close Attention" and the straight-up power funk/bass kick of "Fade It." While much of the Sunday show features acts worth hearing, after listening to Brother El's record, the likes of Atmosphere will just sound like, well, hip hop from Minnesota (which it is). By Dave Chamberlain ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Brother El Through The Cracks Of Concrete The Beat Bank Voicing his innermost thoughts from somewhere in Chi Town comes Brother El. On a spoken word tip, expect intellect and high brow expression as this emcee scatters the patter on some ambient tunes. It's trance like and somewhat enchanting but El still has his tootsies on the sidewalk with deep issues in mind. 'Through The Cracks Of Concrete' is what the title might suggest; a closer look at life with in depth perspective. Exploratory. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Illinois Entertainer Brother El By Mark Fitzgerald Armstrong Earatik Statik member and WLUW radio personality Brother El takes a Beethoven-ish approach with the tone poems and impressionist verse on his Through The Cracks Of Concrete LP. West African percussion is blended with an industrial funk, trippy R&B, and steady hip-hop drum track. The apocalyptic "Pay Close Attention" addresses mentally transcending the hood, while the tours de force are found in Path's guest appearance on "Don't Hold Back" and Larry Milla's soliloquizing on "Under Hypnosis." Both bonus tracks manage to be simultaneously commercial-friendly and experimental.

Additional Info info@thebeatbank.net

Location Chicago, IL - USA

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