Digable Planets, Beyond the Spectrum: The Creamy Spy Chronicles

reviewed by dave heaton

Digable Planets' last album was in 1994, and now they're back, touring and working on new music. Hence the need for the re-introduction that is Beyond the Spectrum: The Creamy Spy Chronicles, a compliation of songs from their previous, early '90s existence. Any kind of 'hits' compliation coming after only two albums is always going to raise eyebrows, but this is something different. A few b-sides and remixes are included to make it fresher, but more importantly the songs have been mixed together in a cohesive way, making it feel like a proper album.

Beyond the Spectrum holds together on its own, and doesn't feel like a cut-and-paste job. That's remarkable considering that both of their albums, 1993's Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) and 1994's Blowout Comb, originally felt very much like unified albums themselves. But the first album, the successful one, was so driven by one hit single, "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)", that it certainly deserves to be heard with new ears. And the follow-up album, both more musically sophisticated and more driven than its predecessor, is perenially under-rated, made nearly invisible by its lack of commercial success.

Even outside of the group's decade-long absence, then, a reintroduction is worthwhile. And Beyond the Spectrum handles the task capably, with the right balance between the two albums (meaning tilting slightly toward Blowout Comb) and the welcome presence of two b-sides and two remixes, all of which are right up with the album-tracks quality-wise. It's a solid, compact distillation of their sound and style, created to please both fans and newcomers.

"Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)", and its beatnik/jazz club video, might on its own have given the impression that Digable Planets were hipsters trying to piggy-back on some kind of supposed "jazz-rap" trend. But in the context of this compilation it slides right in between the others, another smooth track led by two MCs with a mellow vibe but a quick and clever grasp on language. Digable Planets' sound overall does certainly incorporate jazz, but also '70s soul and old-school, down-to-basics, block-party hip-hop. That was made especially clear on Blowout Comb, but the Reachin' songs here are generally in that vein as well, as the most fanciful and abstract songs from that album have been wisely passed over.

Beyond the Spectrum successfully highlights the strengths of Digable Planets: Ladybug and Butterfy's unique voices and MC'ing skills, the way their songs are imaginative yet also relate to real-life places and circumstances in a concrete way, and how seamlessly the trio taps into the music of the past to create something new. Their music still sounds fresh over 10 years later.

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