Less underground hip-hop vibe, more ‘80s Hair Band sound, The Return of Dr. Octagon—one of the many alias’s of East Coast bred MC Kool Keith—is big on production, but somehow lacking in the vast lyrical tomfoolery that this prolific musician has come to be known for. That’s not to say there aren’t moments that recall the man’s kooky greatness, but save for the excellent finale track “Eat It,” featuring the highly underrated rantings of Princess Superstar, none rise to meet the excellence that has been established. This endearing collaboration between the Princess and the Piper is the only explicit track contained on this disk. Well, there are those out takes, like “Our Operators Are Masturbating” and “The Turtle Skit” that remind us why we’ve worshipped at the alter of the West Coast influenced Octagon for lo these many years.
Following the ‘80s theme, the production team of One Watt Sun, imbue the bulk of the proceedings with Flock of Seagull-style digitations. “Trees” and “Aliens,” especially, rely broadly on sampled voice-overs and choruses. The best of these, featuring DJ Dexter, is “Ants,” a weirdly spaced out, yet keenly aware observation of humanity.
Of course, any Dr. Octagon disk has to throw out a curveball. In this case, it is the bizarre, country-influenced, “A Gorilla Driving A Pick-Up Truck.” Though the genesis seems unlikely, this song is actually one of the more fleshed-out tunes in the bunch. And, the eponymous “Doctor Octagon” is fairly groovy, and about what you’d expect.
All in all, it would seem that the master of disguise has adopted a new guise in which to enthrall, or at least keep his fans off-balance. It’s just curious that instead of creating another identity in which to create this disk, he’s utilizing one of his more identifiable ones.
OCD International Records
www.ocinternational.com
www.thereturnofdroctagon.com
www.onewattsun.com
