Time: “The Fantastic Reality”
Dirty Laboratory, 2008

Time, the frontman of .Calm, veritably has words flowing out of his head at light speed.  Fortunately, the light of his inspiration doesn’t serve to spotlight hip-hop egomania. Rather, it is dynamic poetry that gives shape to and highlights what it means to be a creative, intelligent person in a world that doesn’t often reward true artistry.

On this latest solo effort, Time, aka Chris Steele, once again doesn’t bother to dumb things down. He assumes his listeners are smart and informed. Although his imagery and cultural references come fast and dense, all of these songs are accessible and seem to work on their own merit aside from having to get all the brilliant weaving together of ideas, allusions and conceptually clever turns of phrase.

This album is a fusion of Time’s interest in surrealistic art (“Images of Two Dead Spaniards”), mythologies of the future (“Ginger’s Drumming With Celery Sticks” with its excellent sample of “Intimacy” by Linn Van Hek as heard in the film The Terminator), love (“Lollipop Jawbreaker”), deep existential explorations (“The Unspeakable Genius”), sharp social critique (“My Fantastic Country”) and disillusionment transformed into inspiration (“This Is the Happiest Song That I Ever Did Wrote”) with nearly orchestral electronic music and languidly dark beats that lend the entire proceedings a stark edge even in its most celebratory moments.

The aforementioned “Images of Two Dead Spaniards” is a homage, of course, to the art of Salvador Dali with a deft nod to that famous painter’s collaboration with infamous filmmaker Luis Buñuel. Each line links together the various names of the works of Dali.  It is as though Time challenged himself to bring high art and low art together to prove that it is, in essence, all the same thing and that it is our own internalization of values and embracing of ignorance born of class that keeps the various worlds of art apart. Which, in itself, is a powerful statement. When we are able to cast off our own self-oppression and see things for what they are, the world around us is much more inspiring and interesting than we ever could have imagined. Like any great work of art, The Fantastic Reality forces us to look at ourselves and how we comprehend our lives and the world in a new way.  Time was just clever enough to put such a visionary artistic agenda together with fun, danceable beats. Yes, Time uses surrealism within his own songs but like Dali, there is a playfulness and comic sophistication in what he has to say.

Musically, The Fantastic Reality brings together retro-futuristic new wave music, hip hop, collage sounds and its own brand of electronic music that serves to enhance the mood of each song in a way that is more dynamic than is often heard in mainstream hip hop or even in most other types of music that rely on sequencers and synths.

Time aims for greatness with this record and it’s clearly an ambitious affair on all levels.  But unlike many of his indie rock contemporaries, with this mixture of songs, Time doesn’t aim for obscurity. A number of these songs are lively, upbeat, buoyant songs that one could easily hear on a Top 40 hip hop station. However, none of these tracks is throwaway or lacking in depth and artistry and that fact is sure to make it a classic for many years to come.