Out of the Dungeon XXIII

Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.

Out of the Dungeon XXIII: Where Did This Album Come From 
Raising Hell out of Nowhere 
An Analysis from MC SiD

[The Raising Hell in Plaid CD is out of print.

It can be downloaded digitally here.]

Where did this album come from?

The answer is by no means easy to come to. What business does any band, let alone a rag-tag, sloppy, lo-fi basement band with only one member appearing on every album have releasing their best “real” (Lungless?) album 8^th!? It’s completey unhead of! Nick Drake put out a masterpiece 3^rd, plenty of other bands (Mars Volta, Tribe Called Quest, et al.) 2^nd, and the Talking Heads 4^th. Certainly no hip-hop album that I can think of is even remotely relevant after their 4^th album. The music historian approaching No Sunlite for the Media’s dauntingly gargantuan discography has no answer for this magnificent success this late.

Further inspection deepens the mystery unavoidably, but also sheds a bit of light. Lungless Beavers was released at a failing bagel shop (called “Bagels”) in June 2006. Raising Hell in Plaid errupted in December 2009. So… it had only been 3.5 years since the first album. The music historian breaths a sigh of relief until exhaling into an asphyxiated panic upon remembering that the band has put out 46 seconds short of 8 hours of music in that span. And it’s not as if we’ve been making 46 minute symphonies here, folks. There’re 249 tracks in those 8 albums and 2 EPs. That’s any average of 1:55 for those who’re reading this without a TI-83 Plus handy. This information is shocking. It’s baffling.

But discographies are no more pure data than love is pure chemical reaction. And No Sunlite for the Media must love music to make this much of it in this relatively short period. But enough talk of quantity. Raising Hell isn’t awesome just cuz, or even mainly cuz, it’s the 8^th hour of No Sunlite music in the last 4 years. It’s awesome cuz it sounds more fresh, sincere, emotion laden, and inspired than anything else to date.

Math took 1 step back overall with his raps on Child’s Introduction, but took 3 forward on this album. Every line fits seamlessly atop the enormous treasurey of break-beats and tambourine loops blasting thru yr speakers. Songs from A Dungeon may boast the most diverse and rich beats, Raising Hell’s pound much harder and take fewer prisoners. The hymns with all their harmonies and created verses flow better with surrounding tracks than in any other album. Sample after ingenious sample provide depth and humor. (“Oh no!”) And the seasoned No Sunlite listener (probably whoever’s reading this right now) can pick out ∞ musical and lyrical references to previous No Sunlite songs. Count ‘em.

What we have here is No Sunlite for the Media at the height of its skill, the maximum intelligence of its ideas, the greatest maturity of its sound, and the jammingest enjoyment of the art of music. It will forever stand as their greatest musical achievement. 

That is, unless they reach their 16th album.

So then, even a cursory overview of the No Sunlite discography reveals exactly where this came from, every sample, every breakbeat, every Christian principle, every lyric, every inspiration.

NSFTM's been on a journey to heaven from the get-go. Come along. We hope one day to reach it and see you there.

- MC SiD

"Hopes to see you if he gets there"

Sep. 2k10

Mt. Airy, MD