C-Lance is a 33 year old producer from Boston, Massachusetts who broke out in 2010 after becoming an in-house producer for Vinnie Paz. He would go on to become one of the underground’s most prominent names for the likes of the Army of the Pharaohs, La Coka Nostra, Swollen Members, R.A. the Rugged Man & G-Mo Skee throughout the last decade. However, C-Lance has decided to drop a new album every month throughout 2021 & is kicking it off with a sequel to his previous instrumental album The Ghosts of Mt. Fuji.
Things kick off with the title track, which has these dusty boom bap drums & some horns that kinda remind me of the classic Pharoahe Monch joint “Simon Says” for some reason. The next instrumental “Duel Under Autumn Leaves” has a sound kin to that of Visions of Gandhi while “The Ghost of Yarikawa” gets back on the boom bap rip albeit with a more alluring loop attached to it. The “Bamboo Forest” instrumental has these string sections throughout that give it a cinematic feel to it while “The Hannya Mask” sounds like it was originally made for Chaly & the Filth Factory.
The “Curse of the Snow Woman” instrumental perfectly lives up to it’s name with it’s spooky vocal harmonies & icy keys whereas “Oni & Yurei” dives right back into that Vinnie/JMT sound. The “Haunting in Kawasaki” kinda reminds of me C-Lance’s first instrumental album House of 1,000 Beats with its horror movie quality while “Shrine of Kobe” stands out as the most uptempo beat on the entire project without question.
“Spirits of Inunaki Tunnel” is laced with a heavenly vocal loop throughout while the penultimate beat “Shadow of the Samurai” is the complete opposite as the crooning samples sound evil & the trumpet is a nice touch as well. “Tears Falling in Tokyo” ends with a dusty flip fit for crying in the hometown of the current IWGPヘビー級王座 in his 3rd reign & IWGPインターコンチネンタル王座 in his 6th reign 内藤哲也.
This dude has been one of my favorite producers in recent memory & I can’t wait to hear everything else he has in store for the year. He does a good job at taking all these Japanese samples & putting his own grimy spin on them much like The Ghosts of Mt. Fuji providing a soundtrack to a trip out in the prefecture that made former CMLL Mundial Pesomedio Campeon, CMLL Mundial Parejas Campeon, オープン・ザ・ドリームゲート王座, 2-time NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Champion, 11-time IWGPジュニアヘビー級王座, IWGPジュニアタッグ王座, GHCジュニアヘビー級王座, GHCジュニアヘビー級タッグ王座 & WWE Hall of Famer 獣神ライガー.
Score: 3.5/5
Legends Will Never Die 