Although this is the debut album by Joshua Mikah Abrams under the Reminder name, there are some pretty high hopes attached to it. The reason for this is Abrams’ impressive and ever growing list of collaborations, having contributed bass to albums by The Roots, Diverse, Tortoise, Sam Prekop, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and David Grubbs. Furthermore, Abrams comes highly recommended by Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73, Piano Overlord, Savath + Savalas, Delarosa), who released Continuum on his Eastern Developments label. However, despite the dense history Abrams has in indie rock, Reminder is the name he has designated for production of organically arranged, future-jazz-based downtempo and hip-hop. Well, I suppose “Now I Disappear” is technically drum and bass, but that’s just double-speed hip-hop anyway. Reminder’s cavernous lounge beats are pretty far from Prefuse’s glitch-hop. It’s often hard to tell which instruments are sampled and which ones are played by Abrams, or if it’s both. But even though the sounds are smooth, there is something about Continuum that is distinctly amateur. I suppose there’d be something of a transition period in coming out from under the shadow of so many great artists, so I’m quite interested to hear where he goes with this project. And under the rhymes of Thaione Davis, “Leave What You Came With” shows that Reminder is real close to being something truly special in the rich land of underground hip-hop.
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