The Return of Dr. Octagon

Keith Thornton, best known by the stage name Kool Keith, released the album Dr. Octagonecologyst in 1996, under the name Dr. Octagon, produced by Dan "The Automator" Nakamura. In 2002, Thornton announced The Resurrection of Dr. Octagon, a proposed sequel to Dr. Octagonecologyst that would reintroduce the character. Thornton himself took part in the production of early material for the project, playing bass, guitar, and keyboards on many of the tracks. Thornton signed a contract with CMH Records to release the album. On July 23, 2002, Rolling Stone reported that a new Dr. Octagon album would be released in February 2003. Explaining his choice of label, Thornton said, "I chose to go with somebody that [would] take this as a creative project, not a marketing project. Major labels tend to let inexperienced people oversee your projects. Your innovation goes down because they have [too much] input. You don't see anybody going into the studio to tell James Brown what to do. Even though he can adapt to certain things, nobody tells him how to sing. That's the way I feel about myself." Preceding the production of the album, Thornton told Rolling Stone that "this album is fine-tuned with instruments, deeper and more spaced out. The last one was cool, but I didn't like it because it wasn't funky. When I don't work on a project, it's not that funky. When I do work on it, it's funky, and it has soul to it...I'm proud of my funky sounds right now." Fanatik J was not named as the album's producer. Thornton stated that with Dr. Octagonecologyst, Thornton had given Nakamura his first successful album as a producer, and that with The Return of Dr. Octagon, he would "make another person and create another star". As production on the album was underway, Thornton had a falling out with Fanatik J over contract rights. Thornton referred to Fanatik J as "greedy" and stated that "He went out of his level of producer's ranking. Maybe he thought he was an overnight Quincy Jones, that he was the Automator." Fanatik J later engaged in a legal battle with CMH over contractual terms that did not give him input on remixes. Following Fanatik J's disputes with the label, CMH contacted San Francisco-based producer John Lindland and Melbourne-based producers Simon Walbrook and Ben Green to produce material for the album. Lindland, Walbrook and Green began creating material for the album under the billing of One-Watt Sun. Thornton was briefly involved with the project, recording vocals for three tracks: "Trees," "Ants," and "Aliens," based upon rough sonic and lyrical themes created by the production team. After Thornton had a falling out with the label over contractual terms, he gave the label recordings he had made two years previously, consisting of Thornton rapping and goofing off, in order to complete his contract. The album was completed without his involvement. ==Music==

Production One-Watt Sun met at various points in Berlin, Prague, Melbourne, and Byron Bay to work on the album's music tracks with Pro Tools software. The music and structure of the vocal recordings were completed the following year. The remixers appear in the story as "interpreters" hired to decipher the meaning of each remixed song, reportedly sent in a package to the offices of OCD. The story begins three weeks after OCD received the package. Still unable to decode its meaning, the record company receives a phone call from an unknown source, tracked to Los Angeles, New York, Australia and Saturn. The caller claims to have received the same package five years ago and that it had brought destruction and chaos upon his society, and warns that they are coming after Octagon. Cassettes Won't Listen reveals that Dr. Octagon was imprisoned in the cell next to him, as "a prime candidate to study all things regarding grills, pills and bills". The story concludes with the remixers and OCD's staff escaping with the package on Kid Loco's plane. An intern briefly sees a figure standing on OCD's rooftop, wearing a labcoat with a stethoscope around his neck, holding the head of "some black hairy creature" in his hand. PopMatters writer Michael Frauenhofer wrote that "Dr. Octagon's lyrics on this album typically appear to be unconnected, but over the course of each track can be seen building around a general theme, be it conservation, societal conformity, American militarism, or, yes, his characteristic fascination with sex." A remix of "Aliens" by British drum and bass producer Sub Focus was chosen as compilation of the month in the May 2006 issue of Mixmag. ==Release==

OCD International was created as an imprint of CMH to release the material. On June 27, 2006, OCD International released One-Watt Sun's material under the title The Return of Dr. Octagon in the United States on compact disc, although the completed work more closely resembled a remix album than what Thornton had originally intended. CMH distributor World's Fair promoted The Return of Dr. Octagon as the official sequel to Dr. Octagonecologyst, and claimed that Thornton would tour in support of the album. In August, Thornton performed under the Dr. Octagon billing, but did not promote the album. According to Thornton, "This ain't the record I did. It was totally new music. I was really pissed off about people wanting me to go out and tour and do these songs." OCD originally intended to ship 50,000 units during the first year, but halted the plan due to the remarkably high volume of downloads received by the online remixes. In September, Thornton stated that he had not received royalties from CMH Records. According to Thornton, "I hope they're sending them. You have another interview if they don't send me a check. Honestly, with the next single, I want them to leave me a sparkling diamond." == Reception ==

Metacritic, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gives the album a score of 61%, denoting generally favorable reviews. The earliest reviews of the album, published by the LA Weekly and Newsweek, were positive. Rolling Stone critic Christian Hoard wrote that "Octagon's verses often feel unfocused and random, but when he bears down he can be mesmerizing, channeling his quick-tongued rhymes with streetwise brassiness and cosmic vibrations." Other reviews were mixed. Pitchfork Media's Tom Breihan wrote that "Keith himself is responsible for all of the album's good moments. Even when he's in unhinged-rant mode, Keith's imagery often remains lucid. And so the album's best song is "Ants," where he comes off frantic but omnipotent...It's dense and fascinating stuff, a tantalizing glimpse of what might've happened if Keith hadn't treated the reemergence of his most popular persona like an easy payday." Negative reviews came from Billboard writer Ron Hart and Michael Pollock of Prefix magazine. Hart wrote that "Kool Keith has dropped nothing but disappointment and at an alarmingly steady rate". Pollock wrote that "Despite all the stupid records he's put out before, The Return of Dr. Octagon is the first one that plunges wholly into self-parody. He's now a fully realized clown, a prop, a joke and, most disappointingly, a sub-par rapper whose forced ideas and personality obstacles have devolved into flimsy, uninspired character sketches." Dan the Automator criticized the release, stating "That wasn't a Dr. Octagon record. Dr. Octagon is me, Kool Keith, and Q-Bert. The label didn't have the legal right to use the name, but I didn't want to get involved in a legal battle...Keith's my man, just trying to make a little bit of money." KutMasta Kurt stated that Thornton was reluctant to perform songs from the album, because the lyrics did not fit the music. John Lindland, who coproduced the final album under the name One-Watt Sun, stated in defense of the album, "People say it's a fake. We don't have that feeling. We think that those are great tracks. It wasn't about remixing anything. They were our ideas, and Keith went on grooves that we sent to LA." In response to Fanatik J's criticism of the album, One Watt Sun referred to him as being disgruntled as a result of the label discarding his music. According to Lindland, "If we were him, we'd have [a] beef too". Dr. Dooom 2, Thornton's 2008 follow-up to First Come, First Served, was produced in response to The Return of Dr. Octagon. According to Thornton, "I'm one of those artists that people take my music without my consent. People love to snatch my music and do things on their own. You got people that put me on beats I never rapped on. I just feel that it's a bad thing." Thornton later revived the character for the albums Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation and Space Goretex. ==Track listing==

• Keith Matthew Thornton – lyrics, vocals • Concetta Kirschner – lyrics & vocals (track 14) • April McClellan – vocals (track 5) • Dexter Fabay – scratches (track 4) • Simon Walbrook – producer, mixing • Ben Green – producer (tracks: 1–10, 13–15), mixing • John Lindland – songwriting • Mike Letho – mixing • Nilesh "Nilz" Patel – mastering • Tomáš Sochůrek – additional mixing • François Tétaz – additional mixing • Argee Geronca – artwork design • Brent Wadden – artwork design • Mario Campos – artwork design • Michael Tullberg – photography ==References==