Records: The X-Ecutioners' X-Pressions

By Daniel Levy

The X-Ecutioners are four turntablists--DJs who are just so ill that you have to grant them a new title. What turntables do, for those who don't know, is cut and scratch the hell out of a record. Without a doubt, the X-Ecutioners are true artists, skilled at their instrument. Their album offers beats that make you want to dance, beats that make you want to bug out--it even offers beats that make you want to study.

Songs like "Get Started," star a slightly bouncy beat. The track's cutting is so tight that no matter how badly you may want to dance, you'll be confined to sitting on the couch bobbing your head until the next cut. Other cuts, like "Word Play," greet you with a spark of energy, and a beat that's easier to feel.

Throughout the album are snippet interludes comprised mostly of talking and background sounds. Here, the X-Ecutioners let you get to know them. You can appreciate how hard it must have been for four DJs to get the chance to create an album that is so far from the normal radio-oriented type of hip-hop saturating music media these days. The X-Ecutioners sample and gather sounds from countless sources--from Rakim to techno to simply weird sounds.

So yell "Yayyeeeeeee!!!!!" if you like hip-hop. "Yayyeeeeeeee!!!!" is the best "x-pression" for the X-Ecutioners' new joint--this album is clear, honest proof that hip-hop is art. (Asphodel)

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