- Though Lunice Fermin Pierre II, or Lunice, is best known as a producer, he's always explored several creative disciplines. The French Canadian artist got into music through breakdancing—several YouTube clips, all from 2008, show him dancing to tracks by Lazer Sword, Mike Slott and Nosaj Thing. He'd started DJing the year before that. ("...in general I was just a creative guy," he once told The Quietus. "I just like to draw, I used to do photography, I used to do video art.") In 2010, he released the first of two EPs on LuckyMe with a zany hip-hop feel. His most famous work, though, has emerged from TNGHT, the project he and Hudson Mohawke began in 2012. Heavily influenced by Lex Luger-style maximalism, the duo's blaring rap instrumentals were a big hit with critics and festival crowds. One of their tracks, "R U Ready," ended up on Kanye West's Yeezus as "Blood On The Leaves."
Shortly after TNGHT announced a hiatus in 2013, Lunice decided to "go dark for a few years" to "take the hype we'd built overtime and turn it into something more intimate and human." His long-awaited debut album, CCCLX, is the result. Lunice has said the LP was written with a specific performance in mind, which explains the tracks named after stage markers ("Curtain," "Intermission"). It veers away from the in-your-face horns of TNGHT in favour of flittery hi-hats like insect wings and spacious production with a dramatic, orchestral feel. "Distrust"'s breakdown, for example, has a balletic delicacy. There are tight snare rolls and timpani on the menacing, suspense-filled "Mazerati." Only on the grating piano line and choral synths of "CCCLX II (Intermission)" does the hip-hop opera theme go too far.
The vocal cuts on CCCLX make for the strongest material. The cast of MCs includes Speng, CJ Flemings, Denzel Curry, J.K. The Reaper and Le1f. Lunice also experiments with a singer, his Montréal schoolmate Syv De Blare. "Distrust," featuring Denzel Curry, J.K. The Reaper and Nell, shows Lunice's beatmaking at its best, with each rapper's flow constantly changing as the instrumental swings between near-stillness and hectic rhythms. Likewise, on "Drop Down," Lunice's bass stabs align nicely with Le1f's vocal stabs. With a few more tracks like these, the LP would have made for an even more dramatic return to the spotlight.
Tracklist01. CCCLX (Curtain)
02. Tha Doorz
03. Drop Down
04. Elevated
05. Mazerati
06. Freeman
07. CCCLX II (Intermission)
08. Distrust
09. CCCLX III (Costume)
10. O.N.O
11. CCCLX IV (Black Out)