Sole & Televangel "Dads At The End Of The World"

They say the music you discover in your youth is the music you carry with you for life. While that isn’t entirely my story, it does hold that the music of my youth influences where my ears take me today. 

My first CDs were Ace of Base and Shaq Diesel, and before that I have a distinct memory of owning a Garth Brooks cassette. From there my thirst for sounds developed rapidly - the Shaq sonics being the only one of those to carry forth as I came of age. I found the typical commercial rap sounds of the late 90s but was also curious where the music came from and found myself digging into the history.

Around the turn of the century between Napster, RapReviews.com and the discovery of a show on the Lane Community College radio station dedicated to sounds of the underground my ears shifted and in that distortion emerged a new sound and style in Anticon and specifically Sole. The Juxies were cool, Atmosphere was good but there was something about the stream of conscious flows from Sole that made me feel deeply inspired and connected to this music that I had rapidly fallen in love with.

Part of that love was that it was the first time I felt like maybe I could try to rap. And I did. But that was a short lived dream, my rhythm, my flow, my voice... it all needed practice that I wasn’t disciplined enough to give time too. It didn’t help that my partner in this endeavor possessed one of the most natural and impressive flows I’ve heard to this day. Alas life happens and our paths diverged and drifted.

Learning To Walk, Bottle of Humans, Selling Live Water, Music For The Advancement of Hiphop, The Taste of Rain... Why Kneel? - I played the hell out of all of these and still find them to be fantastic listens. So yes, this is music from my youth that my love is undying for. And yes, some of that love is intertwined with nostalgia. By the time Live From Rome hit I was a sophomore in college and was back on the party rap bandwagon, hitting house parties looking for early demonstrations of a new style dedicated to the turn up. By the time he hit with the Skyrider Band I was disinterested and ceased to listen.

In what feels like a lifetime since those days, here I am tuning back in and being reminded of what I loved so much about Sole. I’m also feeling like I need to go back and check out all that I missed - but that’s my never ending saga of wanting to hear more new to my ear sounds.

Televangel’s name is what prompted me to press play on Dads At The End of The World. I’m deeply grateful I did.

While I’ve always been a peripheral fan of all things Blue Sky Black Death I can’t say that I’ve ever been caught by anything either of them have been connected to like I have this record. The early albums were interesting enough ethereal beatscapes but dropped at the same time that I was looking for sounds to get loaded too. The early Nacho albums struck that nerve well but by then I was lost to giving any music the deep attention it requires. And recently I’ve wanted to sink in to his work with AJ Suede, Milc and a revitalized Nacho but it hasn’t happened yet. If the work here is any indication, it’s my loss.

These beats lend themselves well to Sole’s emotional, dense, philosophical wordplay. They are haunting, yet uplifting. Inspired, hopeful and full of their own layers of energy. I’d happily listen to the instrumentals of this project while reading a book in the backyard this summer. Televangel has an ear for rhythm, melody and ambiance. It’s no wonder he has been able to remain active and collaborative for over 20 years now. These beats feel connected to a myriad of styles and sounds, eras and genres.

"Sole & Televangel

Dads at the end of the world

That makes us desolation angels

But I ain’t no angel

Just strangers in the tangled wilderness that seeks to strangle all hustle

When I got to self destruction 

That's a function of the labor

Fuck a label

Fuck a paycheck

Moving at a break neck speed

Never catch me with my head out the bunker

Asking the police is it safe yet?

Security is an illusion

You think you want it

Who am I to take that

If your back is strong this world will try to break that

I’m a cyborg wandering the barrens

Still an ape yet

The UN says humans gotta eat more bugs

If you hear this you're just an insect that ain’t been ate yet

No I don’t make happy shit

In fact I’ve been so fucked up by this post COVID world

Couldn’t even write my unhappy shit

But I’m back like prepping for the apocalypse, we in it

With hiphop I’m a quaker

Only speak when I’m moved"

Over pulsating synths, a deeply effected and filtered vocal hum, fluttering flourishes of other sounds coming and going and a constant, steady thump that erupts into what sounds like live drums Sole emerges with these bars to open the album and set the tone. As was always the case with those earlier Sole albums, he gets deeply personal, deeply intellectual and deeply focused on presenting uncomfortable truths about the state of affairs from his vantage point.

And, just like when I first discovered him this is what pulls me in. Little has changed, his politics are front and center, his opinions and perspectives take a hard line stance on the wrongs perpetrated by those in power and those with many zeros in their bank accounts. I’ve been searching for music that speaks to the fall of empire with such clarity and directness - if these kinds of philosophies interest you, press play, tap in, listen.

The title is telling as it’s clear that becoming a father, a husband, have impacted him, inspire him, direct him. He expresses his love, his fear, his struggle to make sense of a mad world to the little humans he is raising. I relate. How do we address these atrocities that are more and more frequent? How do we instill hope for a future that looks more and more doomed? Sole offers no firm answers, as no one can, it’s a path we all have to travel individually. 

When he is not railing against the state of emergency we are all living through he gets autobiographical, speaking about his experiences living life, channeling the power of a life lived on the edge, focused on how family, community and human interactions can bring us to a place of peace in the fire. I relate. Sole isn’t giving up, as none of us should. He seems to stand by his principles, speaking about renouncing shares, traveling the world and communing with those living lives defined by poverty and violence. He pulls from his own experiences as a youth, finding joy and purpose in music.

Continually the music aids in the heft of his vocals. It’s atmospheric enough to provide a sort of sonic escape, capturing a pain and a hope simultaneously existent. Televangel’s drum programming is impactful, he holds none of the typical hiphop-esque tropes, bringing to mind machines, industrial might, but also a mystical quality resides perhaps due to the embedded harmonies I can only assume come from an array of synthesizers and virtual instruments. You can drift, you can nod your head, you can dance.

I had planned to publish this last week but as I approached it I couldn’t quite find the words to finish and decided I needed to sit with it longer. And now that I’ve sat with the project for another week all I find myself feeling is that I want to continue to sit with it. The music is captivating, the rhymes are dense and demand repeated analysis. There is a lot here for a mind to process, consider, digest. For me, this is what music is all about - a feeling of freshness, a feeling of continued discovery. No it’s not easy, it’s not disposable, it’s not going to get you ready for your night out at the club. It speaks to a reality we are all witnessing and yet don’t seem to want to acknowledge. Sole is, and perhaps as this seeps into the aether it will spark more conversation, more connections, more moments to accept the coming changes, more willingness to let go of this crumbling system we all want to cling to at our peril.