I have to admit, when I first heard Antipop Consortium, I wasn't impressed.
Fortuitously, I found 'Tragic Epilogue' going cheap in a charity shop. I bought it, and whilst I appreciated their experimental approach, it didn't grab me as much as I had hoped, so I quickly sold it on. I never really gave APC any further thought after that until I heard 'Human Shield' on a late night radio show, but it was enough to rejuvenate my interest, and soon after, I made a point of picking up 'Arrhythmia'.
On first listen, I was blown away by the sheer freshness of the record. I loved their combination of experimental electronica techniques and hip-hop and wondered why there wasn't more of this. The rhymes were also unlike anything traditionally being served up by a lot of rap music at the time, and whilst APC weren't the only emcees veering off the beaten track, they did what they did with style, flair and precision. To me, it was like verbal ninjitsu. Beans I could take or leave, but both M Sayid and High Priest blew me away with their bars.
Sometime after the release of APC's 3rd album 'Fluorescent Black', I revisited 'Tragic Epilogue' and found myself enjoying it a lot more the second time around, but 'Arrhythmia' has stayed with me largely because I consider it to be their most consistent and rounded album. Whilst the rhyming across all three albums is of comparable quality, 'Arrhythmia' benefits from being leaner (the other two could really do with some editing...) and having better beats overall.
All in all, I consider 'Arrhythmia' to be an exceptional record, one that treats hip-hop as an artform rather than a pantomime, and it will always stay with me for that reason.
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