By Deuce

Your man Frank Cogliano has done a couple key things with his new album Computers of the World. The first is to capitalize on the once in a lifetime series of twos that accompanied the 02/22/2022 release of this project—which is approximately when the current international martial conflict fed to the masses via the media each day began.

Moreover, he’s put together one of those type of affairs where if there’s a track that doesn’t grab you right away, all you have to do is forward to the next one or so to find a tune that will. That’s one of the boons of assembling a fully complete, 17-cut album (especially when most artists don’t go beyond 12, if they even reach that).

Not to mention, since there is a paucity of vocals on this outing—the artist is a producer and musician, not necessarily a singer—he’s got a few knocks on here that are just right for freestyling to or serving as instrumentals for spontaneous and aspiring emcees. “Sheets to the Wind” is a perfect example of this fact. The bass is distinctive, there’s a good sounding snare atop the four-on-the-floor kicks, and it moves at a decent clip for getting one’s flows off.

Moreover, the project is able to couple traditional electronica—in the form of samples and synths—with what must surely be live instrumentation. The foregoing bass line, and that found on “Peace 2”, exemplifies that fact. The wah wah that dominates this effort must be live. Ditto for the bass. Plus, the artist is working some sort of handheld drums for the percussion that gives the cut a bona fide flare that stands out from the bevy of synths moving around in there, too.

As live as his musicianship is, however, the producer has a propensity for hooking up his drums something cool so that they transcend their mere patterns and all of the instruments atop them. “Cave” is a perfect example of this fact—although it certainly benefits from a vivacious bass line—, with a snare that simply sounds so good it transforms the entire track (which was no slouch already) when it comes in perhaps halfway through the number. Rest assured, there’s certainly some stuff on this project, most likely for everyone.