Free Moral Agents

Free Moral Agents – Lay Down 12” (2003) on Pete Records

A1. Lay Down
A2. Lay Down (Instrumental)
B1. What I Really Think
B2. The Mortgage Banker vs. The Savage (feat. Subtitle)

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2mjdylz2amm

Free Moral Agents started out as the solo project of Isaiah Ikey Owens. This man single handedly played keyboards for most of the SoCal ska scene of the mid to late 90s. Sublime, Reel Big Fish, Long Beach Dub Allstars, The Aquabats, The Hippos, Rx Bandits, the list doesn’t stop. He was recruited to join De Facto, which eventually evolved into the Mars Volta. Nowadays he’s popping up on albums by Saul Williams, El-P, Busdriver, and even Mastodon (Blood Mountain, to be exact).

This 12” is FMA’s first release, and happens to be their most orthodox, in hip hop terms. Owens produces all of the music, with the exception of the last cut featuring Subtitle, DJ Nobody is responsible for the drum programming. The title track never stood out to me in any way, not that it’s bad, it’s just not exceptional. The B side slays however. The MC is some fellow who simply goes by the name J, and his rhymes verge on slam poetry. Pretty thought provoking stuff.

The warping at the end of Subtitle’s guest spot is a taste of FMA’s full length that came out a year later. It takes a giant leap away from hip hop, and just trips absolute balls. Everybody’s Favorite Weapon is on my list of favorite albums ever. In the five years since it’s release I’ve yet to find anything that comes remotely close in the level of surrealism & melody. J left the group in 2006, and in the wake of his departure FMA has become a full fledged band. They’ve also seemed pretty incompetent at releasing their follow up album. The Honey in the Carcass of the Lion was originally slated to be released in the fall of ’07, and the most recent news on its status is a release for spring of ’09 (. . . ). This delay has allowed Earth to beat FMA to the punch, with their 2008 album, The Bees Made Honey In the Lion’s Skull.

It’s worth noting that the group Look Daggers is current, band-era FMA with Visionaries member 2Mex on MC duties. Naturally I’d be all over that, but my feelings about 2Mex are pretty mixed.

And another thing I need to point out, even though I’ve already written too much for this 12”. The first song on the B side is called “The Way I Really Feel” on the outer jacket, but is listed as “What I Really Think” on the record itself. I don’t know which title is correct, even after digging through the ASCAP database. And Pete Records is long since dead, a real shame since they had a pretty interesting roster.