Atmosphere released the underground hip-hop album of Fishing Blues which swarms through the inevitable struggle, a thoughtful composition of living life down and working all the way upwards. The underground mainstays paint numerous pictures in a slow and steady pace, joined in by a collection of guests littered throughout the record.
“Hi, this is a record,” Sean Daley (a.k.a. Sean Daley, or Slug) smirks before going on about the idiocy of a fire-fueled wild man in the opening “Like A Fire.” The caricature continues in “Ringo” as the character in question emphatically repeats that “Everybody wanna see a falling star.” For an album entitled Fishing Blues, the stereo seems to contrast between downward spiraling lyrics with rosy-produced beats. Daley may love the way that you love people (“Besos”), but abruptly cuts the thought short with American Hanky Panky.
“Pure Evil” gives a harrowing single-sided story on police brutality in a lengthy verse, precluded and followed by guest vocals on what is described as pure evil. Stories continue onward in “Perfect” as the story could be anyone while the everyman repeatedly emphasizes his imperfections, then looking at the larger scope of “Seismic Waves” trembling from hometown Minneapolis outward across the land. For taking a day out fishing the record stays squarely focused on an taking an honest look around at what’s happening.
Guest DeM atlas pines away on the loneliness of lying next to someone (“Next To You”), as a drunken Slug unsuccessfully attempts to satisfy himself after a night out with the boys. The feelings continue as the relational tensions extend out into the morning, hoping for a phone call to get through on the way to work in “The Shit That We’ve Been Through.” The tone continues to darken (“When The Lights Go Out”) from the traded verses of playing dumb (hello, MF DOOM) to flat out incarceration.
“No Biggie” gets briefly into an offhanded reference to the late Notorious B.I.G., Slug alluding to mortality and being not quite ready for that route. “Everything” continues on about the everything of life, not pretending during any of it. The entitled tribute “Chasing New York” following then turns outright confessional: “Still got a long way to go… we don’t need an excuse to chase what we chase.”
Slug muses more on the quality love being, “like a tattoo that’s on my eyeball,” in an open confessional of love being “Sugar” in all the complications. While alluded throughout Fishing Blues, the titular track details imagery to the metaphor of struggling continuously. As part of the struggle “Won’t Look Back” alludes to past relational entanglements, with guest Kim Manning muses, “Gone with my life, I can’t save my past.”
In a rare moment Slug actually sings the hook that now he’s all grown up he wouldn’t trade his world with anyone (“Anybody That I’ve Known”), fully self-aware of his bumper sticker type wisdom. In typically hopeful tail ending fashion, Atmosphere reminds us of his longevity in “Still Be Here.” Then in a limelight that’s outright backwards the closing track hopes to emphasize a greeting of a long hello.
With an honest look inside and out, Fishing Blues stays fully aware of life’s continual struggle. In over 20 years running Atmosphere sounds freshly focused as ever, on point in style and lyrical delivery. The collective leans heavily on outside talent but with a full backing band behind Slug in recent years, aside from producer Ant crafting Atmosphere’s core sound, the evolution is not too unnatural. Plus the dark may get darker, yet that only makes Mr. Daley sound all the more hopeful.