Cold Vein
Cannibal Ox is the latest brainchild ofCompany Flow's  El-P, whose lumbering, aggro-electro production on this album is as unique  as a signature. Down-tempo and discordant, the beats sound like  trip-hop gone to heaven and hell--some songs, like "A B-Boy's Alpha," have  an almost angelic feel to them even as El-P soils his tracks with grit  and grime. Others, like "Raspberry Fields," are chaos forced into  unstable order--snaking synthesizer whines struggle to break free,  rhythm sections run amok. This is a taste of the apocalypse turned  aural. The music ofThe Cold Veinis so distinctive that, for a  moment, you might forget that Vast and Vordul are actually rhyming on  it, which is paying El-P a compliment rather than dismissing the two  MCs. Vast's commanding baritone stands out in sharp distinction to his  partner's, as his deliberate flow punctuates every line. It's hard to  categorize what they speak on, as their songs mix the surreal and  abstract with street-level commentary. But they're definitely taking  reality rap on one helluva acid trip.--Oliver Wang