Sarath "Skiz" Fernando[1] (born 1968) is a former music critic, who has written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Source, Spin, and Vibe.
[11] During his time in Harvard, Skiz Fernando would listen to the Street Beat show on WHRB, a student radio station.
Started as a one-page newsletter,[13] The Source quickly turned into what The New York Times described as "the leading magazine on hip-hop music, culture and politics".
In 1993, while working on a review for Material's Hallucination Engine, Fernando contacted the band's bassist Bill Laswell to take an interview.
The collective, apart from Fernando, also included drummer Doug Scharin as HiM, Bill Laswell as Automaton, the duo Sub Dub, Dr. Israel, and the band We™.
noted the "morbid shred of fear and decay" in the album's sound,[25] while AllMusic's John Bush in his review called The Illness a fusion of "hip-hop mysticism more than worthy of Wu-Tang" with production techniques akin to those used by the Jamaican producer Lee "Scratch" Perry.
Known for his early 1990s work with De La Soul and Gravediggaz, he now faced financial difficulties due to low album sales and was frustrated with the music industry.
[29] The album consists of rappers' monologues, where they discuss their obscene thoughts and dreams with a psychoanalyst with a distinct Viennese accent,[28] over jazz-inspired beats.
[8] Fernando later introduced him to Dan the Automator, which resulted in the formation of the Handsome Boy Modeling School duo and the subsequent release of their critically acclaimed debut album So... How's Your Girl?
[34] Among other albums Fernando released that year were Live from the Planet Crooklyn, released under the pseudonym Wordsound I-Powa through ROIR Records,[35] Dread Western by Roots Control duo, a collaborative album with his former roommate Jeremy "Likkle Jer" Dawson,[20][36] and a highly acclaimed Subterranean Hitz, Vol.
1 featured a number of hip hop artists, including Rob Swift of X-Ecutioners, Scott Harding, Prince Paul, and Afrika Baby Bam of Jungle Brothers.
[19] In his review of the album, Tony Herrington of The Wire magazine categorized its tracks as "insulated studio odysseys" which require listeners to have "superhuman levels of concentration".
[39] According to Skiz Fernando, soon after the release he went to Fat Beats, one of the biggest hip hop record stores in New York City, asking them to sell copies of Subterranean Hitz, Vol.
[37] The Wire's Will Montgomery commended the album, noting its "broader set of sounds" and lyrics, that "expose just how dull your average raps are".
[44] The same year Spectre released Ruff Kutz, a 90-minutes mixtape that featured remixes and unreleased tracks from a number of label's artists, including Sensational, Mr Dead, Dubadelic, Techno Animal, Bill Laswell, and Jungle Brothers.
[45][46] Originally a limited WordSound cassette release,[47] in 2015 Ruff Kutz was remastered and re-released on double vinyl and digitally, through PAN,[46][48] an imprint label of Berlin-based artist Bill Kouligas.
[49] Fact magazine placed the re-release on their list of 25 best reissues of 2015, calling it a "freeform hotbox hit-parade of dirty Bowery beats, chopped and screwed breaks, and hefty helpings of echo-chamber dub mixology", that perfectly encapsulated the New York underground scene of the 1990s.
AllMusic's John Bush noted Slotek's move away from samples towards "raps reminiscent of KRS-One" and praised the production that fits the album well.
[53] Despite being an influential underground label and a pioneer of the illbient genre in the 1990s,[54][55][56] in the early 2000s WordSound started gradually fading away from the mainstream media.
[62] In his review for Exclaim!, Thomas Quinlan highlighted the album's atmospheric nature and its blend of exotic Spectre's instrumentals with tracks featuring guest vocalists.
[72] Rick Anderson of AllMusic commended "more energetic beats and lively interpolations of exotic foreign musical elements", but criticized the beginning of the album as being unnecessary.
[69] Dusted's Mason Jones thought the music on the album was "melancholy and slow", as it featured "orchestral stabs and ultra-low synth bass dominating the doom-laden sonic environments".
[73] AllMusic's Chris Nickson called it a "good summation of the state of global dub today from a label that stays permanently on the edge".
[74] XLR8R reviewer Daniel Siwek commended the collective for their ability to provide a diverse range of musical styles while striking a perfect balance between classic elements and a modern sound.
's David Dacks thought the album deviates from the traditional dub sound, instead "[continuing] this series with an assemblage of spine crushers and outward-bound riddims".
[79] Mike Lupica of Dusted magazine noted that the album "[remains] systemically disquieting, off-kilter and reassuringly distanced from any current trend in hip hop".
Laurent Fintoni, writing for Fact magazine, highlighted the album's "crisp and snappy" beats, but warned younger readers that it may sound dated.
's reviewer Thomas Quinlan called The True & Living a "dark and brooding" album, noting the consistency of Spectre's style and his improvements to it.
Philip Freeman, in his article for Bandcamp Daily, described the album's sound as "beats verging on industrial at times, and the bass as tar-like as ever".