As well as being one of the Definitive Jux label’s most immediately recognisable figures and standardbearers, Long Island, NY-born Aesop Rock (real name Ian Bavitz ) has emerged as one of the most singular and eclectic figures to emerge amongst the US alt hip-hop sphere; witness his The Next Best Thing collaboration alongside visual artist Jeremy Fish, which offered up a short story about writers block masquerading as a children’s book, and his Walleyball project for highbrow publishers McSweeneys’ Wholphin series. Given that Aesop’s most recent project showed him compiling an instalment in Nike Plus’ Original Run exercise mix series, it’s been quite some time since he’s graced us with something resembling one of his own longplayers – since 2004’s Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives EP collection, in fact. Given the amount of water that’s gone under the bridge in the two year lead-up to this third full-length album None Shall Pass, much has certainly made of the supposedly ‘more mature’ tone of this latest record, compared to previous efforts like Labor Days and Bazooka Tooth.

However, those concerned that Ace Rock might be reaching for the pipe and slippers combo have little to fear; while None Shall Pass certainly comes imbued with the sorts of themes of increased perspective, regret and transition that only growing years can bring, his established lyrical edge remains undimmed, though some of the anger present on earlier records is noticeably tempered here.

Opening track Keep Off The Lawn certainly vividly introduces the signature booming Def Jux production that colours this album (capably shared between Aesop and longtime cohort Blockhead, with the ever-impressive Big Wiz handling cuts and scratches throughout), with a majestic phased psyche-rock intro worthy of the Grateful Dead suddenly breaking down into crashing MPC-punched drum breaks and funk-sleaze guitars that sit halfway between Superfly and RATM’s Tom Morello, the entire backdrop providing a suitably dusty-sounding, crawling accompaniment to Aesop’s paranoid-sounding undead-centric rhymes, a scratched sample of someone saying “you like you’ve seen a ghost” colliding head-on with his infectious “how alive/too alive” chorus hook.

By comparison, the title track drops a lithe rhythm that sits close to 4/4 house beneath blocky-sounding analogue synth chords, brooding pianos and delicate blues guitar chords as Aesop explores more contemplative and regret-tinged lyrical territory in a track that definitely represents the aforementioned more mature side of this record; the title phrase of “none shall pass” echoing his emotional impenetrability as a repeated sample intoning “I’m trying to help” loops on and on, to no avail.

Fumes meanwhile documents a past relationship soured by drug abuse, the opening line of “stay away, little misfit/her lips were a perfect miss-jiff” arriving amidst eerie, queasy sampled jazz drums and percussion and providing the perfect intro to a dark-hewn autobiographical tale of conspicuous substance consumption and infidelity that’s easily one of this album’s most harrowing and candid offerings. While the typically pensive Gun For The Whole Family sees Aesop collaborating alongside fellow Def Jukie El-P for a dark, dystopian wander through sinister strings, buzzing sub-bass synthlines and hammering drum machine rhythms while the two MCs trade verses at the helm of the dreadnought, in a moment that would’ve sat comfortably amongst El-P’s recent evil-as-hell second album.

Dark Heart meanwhile shows Rob Sonic joining forces alongside Aesop for a synth-heavy wander through dramatic sampled orchestration and headnod beats that offers up some of the most highly dextrous verbal interplay to be seen amongst the tracklisting here, dropping the more introspective trappings and placing the focus more firmly in speaker-banging territory, before Coffee brings things to a close, with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats’ rich, clear vocals rising up amidst Aesop’s MC flow to take things out.

While None Shall Pass might not hit you over the head upon first listening with quite the same righteous anger showcased on previous albums such as Bazooka Tooth, repeated listening soon proves that this is easily perhaps Aesop Rock’s most agile, self-aware and eloquent collection to date. Recommended – and worth the wait.

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