Blue Scholars: Cinemetropolis

Blue Scholars:CinemetropolisSeattle based Blue Scholars releases their third full-length album on June 14, 2011, and is currently available for digital download on their bandcamp page here . Entilted “Cinemetropolis”, the duo of Geologic (emcee) and DJ Sabzi produced the album single handedly with no major label backing. Instead they ran a campaign using kickstarter.com to raise money from fans and supporters to produce and market the album. They originally requested a fundraising goal of $25,000 and far surpassed that goal with the help of over 2,200 backers who ended up donating over $62,000. Due to the success of the campaign, the Blue Scholars plan to produce a music video or short film for each of the songs on the album as well as satisfy the concept of the album. As mentioned on Wikipedia, “Geologic explained the concept of the album as a mash-up of life and cinema. He says in an interview, ‘We’re all residents of the Cinemetropolis now. If you’ve ever seen a moving image and it affected you somehow whether it be a music video, the nightly news, a movie, television, sitcoms, whatever… that… all that has become a part of our truth and how we see the world.”

After previewing the futuristic sound conceived by producer Sabzi, paired with the intellectually sly licks of Geologic, Cinemetropolis delivers one of the band’s finest sounds since their inception in 2002. Throughout the album you experience the maturity of Geo with his sharp lyrical deliveries and Sabzi’s exploration into electronic and futuristic beats that resembles the latest sounds of NERD and Kanye. Take notice that each track is inspired by certain individuals or places, from human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama to actors Tommy Chong and Rani Mukerji and places like Seattle’s Fou Lee. When you listen to each track you will notice how Geo and Sabzi theme their lyrics and beats to the individual or place who’s named on that track. As an example the “Fou Lee” track has an oriental sounding synthesizer with hollow drum sounds and Geo rhyming, “cruise on a hill gettin food at Fou Lee” referring to shopping at a local asian supermarket. The track I think is most politically provoking is the ‘Oskar Barnack – Oscar Grant’ track, referring to Barnack, a camera inventor, and Grant the unarmed victim of a Police shooting in the Bay Area’s subway system recorded by several onlookers with their camera phones. Geo blends these entities referring to the camera phone and drops a hook with a message about the police, “Shoot the cops, shoot the cops, take your camera out your pockets people”, as happened in the Grant murder. Other tracks include a tribute to the recently departed Seattle Supersonics with a guest appearance from former Sonic player Slick Watts in their newest music/short film video:

“Cinemetrepolis” kickstarter campaign

“Fou Lee”

Blue Scholars – Fou Lee from Jason Hakala on Vimeo.

Listen to the album and/or purchase on bandcamp: Blue Scholars: Cinemetropolis

Track Listing:

1. “Cinemetropolis”

2. “Hussein”

3. “Fou Lee”

4. “Lalo Schifrin”

5. “Seijun Suzuki”

6. “Anna Karina”

7. “Marion Sunshine”

8. “Slick Watts”

9. “George Jackson”

10. “Oskar Barnack ∞ Oscar Grant”

11. “Yuri Kochiyama”

12. “Rani Mukerji”

13. “Tommy Chong” (feat. Macklemore)

14. “Chief Sealth”

15. “Fin”

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