REVENGE OF THE WORDS

After reuniting in 2007 after a four-year absence, archetypal progressive rap crew Anti-Pop Consortium are ready to show off the fruits of their labor with a record-release party for their third album Fluorescent Black. They’ve chilled out a little bit with the hyperkinetic “peace-with-a-glass-of-Shasta-after-I-slash-a-rapper-with-a-protractor”–style word clouds, but are no less a force of nature. (“Always suspicious, so the streets I don’t sleep/Spiked wrists and Sid Vicious all over the beat.” . . . I know, right?) Featuring the most headfuckingly bubbly productions of their career, Fluorescent Black spirals with Warp blips, caffeinated scratching, Bomb Squad–style layering, dubstep boom, and Erick Sermon skeletal headbangers—easily the most engaging beats of any 2009 hip-hop this side of DJ Quik. Expect new songs, classics and—if their explosive ATP performance is any indication—the five-member crew doing stellar jazz-style beat improv live on stage.

Tue., Sept. 29, 7 p.m., 2009