All Over by Al Lover

The newest release from San Francisco producer Al Lover, 'All Over' is an old one. Old in the sense that it was originally created in the winter of 2009, and old in the sense that it deals with timeless human subjects, love, loss and regret. This might be the first instrumental Hip-Hop "break up record", and it's sad, ugly and brutally honest. Everything from the piercing highs to the muddy lows reverberate sorrow and pain, even when a small dose of comedy is added.

Chalk full of grimy samples and ugly rhythms the album moves like a drunken burlesque dancer, vulnerable and stumbling, yet confident and beautiful. From the Bluesy church organs, and marching band sway of "She Ain't Around" to the blown-out bass lines and tinny synths of "Screeching Tires", the Project shows the beginning of Al Lover's descent into the realms of the off-kilter and low-fi. Few genres are safe from the chopping block on 'All Over', but even with all the different source material the result produced is a seamless and signature sound.

Choosing to use a vintage portable turntable to sample from on the project has given it an undeniable sonic consistency, full of aggressive and earthy tones added to uncompressed loose crunchy drums (even using scratchy record pops on one track) strange percussion, and organic claps. There's a definite later career Dilla influence here, but an original product is delivered. On this album Al Lover shows us what it is to sequence music to the beat of a broken heart.

"I have chosen to release the album this month, for 2 reasons. One, February being the month of Valentines day I thought it relevant to the theme of love throughout the album. And two, it being the Month that Dilla was born, and died, it's important to note this record was highly inspired by his later work and wouldn't exist with out his influence."

-Al Lover

Tracklist

1.	Acoustics Perfect	3:38

2.	She Ain't Around	3:54

3.	I Loved You, So	2:56

4.	Sonic Stalactites	2:46

5.	I Love You	2:29

6.	Our Love (Will Still Be There)	2:31

7.	Average Love	1:26

8.	You're A Bitch	2:13

9.	Don't Leave	3:33

10.	I Always Love You	1:58

11.	Might As Well Be Dead	1:23

12.	Disco Tech	1:28

13.	Screeching Tires	2:22

14.	Why Can't We	2:52

15.	One Love	3:04

16.	The Time Is Right	2:10

Credits

released August 5, 2010

License

CC BY 3.0. See the Creative Commons website for details.