Once in a while, we realize we’ve created a closed loop. In 2023, when ACL reviewed ALT (Abby Lee Tee)’s Disputed Territory and the single “Beavers,” we lamented that “Beavers” was not on the album. Rising to the challenge, ALT has now responded with an all-beaver EP, to which (you knew this was coming) we respond, “now we’d like an all-beaver album.” And once we get it, we’re going to ask for a double album, and then a box set, and then another box set with only 45s. It’s never going to end. And that’s okay, because Abby Lee Tee loves these industrious mammals, and so do we.
“Have you seen “Hoppers”? I asked ALT. He certainly had, and unveiled the fact that Emily Fairfax, whose quotes populate the EP, was the animated movie’s scientific supervisor. So there you have it; the entire universe is aligned.
Our description of the original track: “Beavers” is not on the EP, but it should be. The new ALT template is established in a humorous fashion, with dialogue samples, hip-hop snippets, cutting and scratching, and the most fun since the heyday of Kid Koala. After hearing some beaver facts and quotable lines (“That doesn’t stop beavers!”), accompanied by “Come on”s, the track launches into field recordings (dam!) and a longer hip-hop quote (“Slow the flow, relax your mind, gain control, take your time”), which is of course a description of what beavers do. Then some actual beavers.
This ridiculously joyful track now closes the EP, save for some bonus non-beaver tracks (more on this later). But there’s plenty of fun to precede it. ALT has clearly been as busy as a … well, you know. The title track begins with backward masking, bubbling, and busy beaver beats. “Beavers help us,” a narrator intones, which sounds like a prayer before the sentence is completed. A great respect is shown to these large-toothed builders. Fairfax’s words are chopped up like chewable logs and re-presented in stacked fashion as the workers giggle in the distance. Then the lovely piano-led trip-hop of “It’s Beautiful,” which sounds like the work of DJ Beaver Shadow, replete with tiny shavings of rap samples.
The water continues to flow as the local birds offer commentary. “Redeveloping That Ecosystem” echoes the message of “Hoppers,” providing a positive path forward. And then “That Dam,” which inspires in this reviewer what he hopes will be a healthy aside. A number of years ago, I attended a speech on the topic of dams. The presenter was introduced by a teenager who lacked homonym awareness, saying, “and now he’s going to speak about his damn project.” “That Dam” reclaims the homonym from its earlier hip-hop context, reversing the teen’s misunderstanding, transforming damn to dam. “That dam is made of sticks and stones and mud … dam it! Dam right!” The 2024 oddball indie comedy “Hundreds of Beavers” was amusing, but this is funny.
But wait, there’s more! If you order now, you’ll also receive, at no extra charge, three bonus non-beaver tracks! And let’s not hear any complaints like “Where are the beavers? There ought to be beavers,” because these are gifts from the artist, and you shouldn’t look a gift beaver in the mouth. You probably shouldn’t look any beaver in the mouth, unless you are a beaver dentist. The sound of running water, along with some very beaver-like sighs and barks in “The Music,” connects these pieces to the larger work.
“Music” is the quintessential sampling, self-referential hip-hop track, containing samples about turntablism itself, while the closing MC quote of “Hydrology” is “like to study my flows,” which in its original context was about rhyme and in its current context is about streams. When beavers ask, “How many streams will this get?” they are talking about something else, which is the clever glory of this EP; humans are involved, but they’re not the main characters. (Richard Allen)