Dr. Octagon - The Return of Dr. Octagon

Genre hip hop Publisher OCD Records External Links Official Dr. Octagon Website

The Return of Dr. Octagon is the second release from Kool Keith (aka Dr. Octagon) who hails from the mean streets of The Bronx. This disc was recorded in Prague, Australia and his current studio in Berlin, according to his website. Keith is a solo act who has teamed up with the production crew that call themselves One Watt Sun (credited only as John, Ben and Simon).

After I got through the painful and offensive track "Our Operators are Masturbating," I proceeded to listen to the cuts "Aliens" and "Ants" which lead me to believe that the Dr. himself is perhaps suffering from societal or cultural shock. This cultural shock may be traced to his roots in New York where there is definite overcrowding and obviously a lot of social and economic issues that obviously plagues his mind. His attempts at social commentary is noted, however, disturbing. One Watt Suns' production on some songs was noteworthy for all the time and hard work they must have put into combining series of samples, scratches, mixes, remixes and computerized/studio manufactured music and sound effects. However the repetitive and annoying sample spliced into every single song stating "This is the time of Dr. Octagon" comes off as a sophomoric attempt at self promotion.

I was expecting a lot more from the song entitled "Al Green." The track is filled with Keith's anger, vile language and possibly even hatred toward the world in general.

Dr. Octagon is obviously influenced by modern day hip hop and rappers, but by the way he dresses and some of his rudimentary attempts at funk, perhaps Bootsy Collins and P Funk are more obvious heroes. I hope Dr. Octagon's bizarre rap, hip hop and funky take on things is done tongue-in-cheek, but it's really hard to tell.