Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives

In the mid- to late 1990s, Guillermo Scott Herren returned to Decatur, Georgia, from New York and worked at a recording studio. Unsatisfied working with the studio's clients, who he felt made "pre-historic trap music", Herren was encouraged to take his music in a more left-field direction, as he was "bored with people barking orders at me to make them these really boring rap beats." In return for Herren handling the studio's hip hop clients, the studio owner bought him a Music Production Center (MPC) which Herren would use to create his Prefuse 73 material. For Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives, Herren sampled more famous hip hop records by artists including Nas, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Erykah Badu. In 1999, Herren signed to the British label Warp under two aliases, Prefuse 73 and Savath & Savalas, The vocalists did not work directly with Herren, but sent him audio tapes of their own vocal recordings. Herren later commented on having Prekop sing on the album, noting that having an indie rock artist on the album was his way of trying to get his sound out to a new audience. ==Music==

Herren described the album as an attempt to bridge hip hop instrumentals with vocal-orientated hip hop tracks, saying that the chopped and edited raps were "another layer of music" and that he was "into creating a whole new mangled language [...] it's a form of communication without communicating, a new flow when you feel like you're listening to a standard hip hop track but there's something in it that's not right." The song "Nuno" features chopped-up vocals with only the phrase "fuck words of wisdom" intelligible; the title is a reference to the Portuguese musician Nuno Canavarro, whose 1988 album Plux Quba also features manipulated vocals including randomly-reassembled tapes of children singing. Music journalists made other comparisons of the music in context of both electronic and hip hop, with Exclaim! describing this sound as "not exactly what the hip hop world is used to hearing." ==Release and promotion==

Prior to the release of Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives, Herren performed at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival at Camber Sands in April 2001. The festival was curated by the band Tortoise, with whom Herren toured as the opening act in May 2001. Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives was released on June 11, 2001, through Warp on vinyl, compact disc and download. The album did not chart in the United States or United Kingdom. Herren was not happy on how the album was promoted, saying: "I couldn't understand why they were treating me like I was 10. They were ignoring all the cultural references that were to be found throughout that first record." He felt the album "would have been easier to package if I'd been from the Bronx. Instead I was from Miami, and lived in Decatur." ==Critical reception==

John Bush of AllMusic described the album as "one of the most enjoyable works of experimental techno heard in several years, a combination of tough, underground hip hop and the fractured neo-electro of Warp favorites Autechre and Plaid." Tedd Kessler of the NME called the album "teeth-clattering but exhilarating", writing that "behind every wall of hip hop noise ... there lurks a heart-bursting tune and that's what makes it alluring." The BBC gave the album a mixed review, stating that "taken as a whole the album is pretty relentless" and the album was "best taken in small doses". PopMatters gave the album a negative review, writing that "the new sounds Herren creates are innovative and entertaining; he simply overdoes it." ==Legacy and influence==

Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives was named as one of the best albums of 2001 by several publications, including Pitchfork, Ottawa Citizen and Rolling Stone. The Globe and Mail named it the seventh best album of the year, with Carl Wilson writing that "of all the electronica-glich-IDM this year, [the album] is the only one I go back to as if it were the Rolling Stones." In 2005, Pitchfork ranked the album the 84th best of 2000–2004. Herren was overwhelmed with the positive reception the album received, exclaiming that "Most of it was so positive, but I'd also get a really strong reaction from people- some that want to kill me, 'cause they're under the impression that I'm trying to kill hip hop or something, and I'm like 'uh see ya, whatever man.'" According to Pitchfork, the album was important for Warp, which had been seeking credibility after relocating their offices to New York City. Herren began acting as A&R member for the label, which had a reputation only for IDM, by introducing it to artists including Anti-Pop Consortium, Battles, and Flying Lotus. In 2011, after releasing The Only She Chapters, his eighth album for the label, Warp ended their relationship with Herren. The master recordings of his material stayed with the label. Sanborn spoke on the influence of Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives, referring to it as one of the records that "gave me a doorway into hip hop. I know it's weird, but he was my entry point into instrumental hip hop, starting a domino effect that led me to Dilla, Madlib and the rest." ==Track listing==

All tracks written by Scott Herren ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives liner notes. • Scott Herren – performer, writer • Estrada / Mofungo – design ==See also==