With a collective sigh of relief, Prefuse 73 has reemerged in top form, perhaps even the best form of his career. With Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian, not only has the frustratingly prolific Guillermo Scott Herren delivered a blinding banger of a record, he’s upped the game that appeared indomitable on 2003’s One Word Extinguisher.
To say his latest is a stronger outing, however, may be deceptive. Extinguisher was built around hard-edged 808 crunches, dusty Motown snaps and the occasional shards of fierce rhyme-spitting. All said and done, the record was a post-’90s hip-hop essential. Less street-ready and more psychedelic sci-fi, Everything She Touched shows Herren shedding one well-worn genre layer and entering a new one. This is an entirely new ‘Prefuse persona,’ one few could have seen coming.
With most tracks hightailing into the next, at just over 60 seconds a piece, the opportunities to really settle into the set are few and far between. This version of Prefuse is one that lives in an alternate universe, where suppressing fresh ideas is subject to imprisonment. The phased-out kick drum crush of ‘Parachute Panador’ casually melts into the anxious, deep funk of ‘Punish,’ with all paths eventually leading to centerpiece ‘Regato.’ ‘Regato’ is a stunner track, bathed in stereo-panning guitar loops and distant female moans. The cut is both contemplative, mood music and Technicolor splash, and a perfect embodiment of Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian’s surreal, reality-bending theme.

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