X-Pressions

Rob Swift, Mista Sinista, Total Eclipse, and the late Roc Raida were arguably the greatest DJ crew to ever come out of New York — assuming you can find anyone willing to argue that point. As a group that emerged in the midst of rap’s early ’90s golden era and started to peak once that era was on the wane, the X-ecutioners fit well into late ’90s underground hip-hop’s preservationist-yet-progressive dichotomy. And while their act was always more impressive live than in the studio, it still packs a punch on their first full-length. There are a few rap cuts scattered amongst the scratch exhibitions — primarily in the service of rescuscitating the old-school hierarchy where MCs serve the role as the DJs’ hypemen — but those are just the more accessible inroads into a more uncompromising dive into hardcore turntablism. And even then, the highlights often come in less flashy, more fundamental forms — the circa-’88 808s and James Brown horn stabs on “Get Started,” the constantly mutating kick-snare emphases on the restlessly morphing “Beat Treats,” and the pitch-heightening sleigh-bell boom bap of “Solve For X” are less invested in reinventing the wheels of steel than they are in honing the classic methods to immaculate perfection. In relying on well-timed transitions and seamless cuts just as much as they do on transformative scratching, the X-ecutioners maintain this consistent feeling of almost contemplative heaviness, where even the downtempo stuff bristles with the promise of new rhythmic angles. And when it comes time to just let it all get turned loose, they find some unconventional settings to do it in — check out “The Turntablist Anthem,” where Rob Swift goes rapidfire on the decks over the backdrop of a mellow trip-hop/neo-soul jazz piano flip, or group exhibition “The Countdown,” where the DJs take a languid bass-heavy groove as thick and slow as molasses and vigorously scrape all the veneer off until the track’s thoroughly weather-beaten and grimy.