Ramon Norwood a.k.a. Radius has been concocting beats using his trusty Akai MPC sampler since 2001. Seven years later, utilizing the same hardware, we find him continuing to hone his craft on his first full length release Neighborhood Suicide. The album is an homage to his hometown of Chicago, Illinois and each track represents a part of the city he has either lived, frequently visited or generally enjoyed. The eleven songs, whose titles consist of a Chitown location as well as a description in parentheses, add up to about fifty minutes of music.

“Humboldt Park (3241982intro)” (birthplace and birth date perhaps?) opens with a Flying Lotus approved ascending video game sound effect and the drum beat drops soon after. Norwood layers various pitches of the sound effect onto the beat before fading everything out into some sampled dialogue followed by his moniker repeated multiple times. “Uptown (Awaken)” is built upon a dirty drum beat occasionally played in reverse at the end of the four bar pattern. The track makes use of four distinct guitar samples: a clean strum, descending melody, slide and volume swell. Although catchy at times, the track seems to drag on during its six minutes and would have been more effective if shortened to at least half its current length. “Logan Square (Rent’s Due)” does just that, as it is basically an upbeat remix of “Uptown” utilizing the same samples with a harder hitting drum beat and lasting only about three and a half minutes. There is a jazzy excerpt before this track which sounds similar to Madlib’s excursions with Yesterday’s New Quintet.

“Southshore (Baahumbug!)” is darker sounding and samples rapid piano arpeggios as well as strings layered over a classic boom bap type drum beat. “Bucktown (Fuckwork)” also uses piano arpeggios and string samples, with a beat that stutters and at times veers slightly off tempo similar to the work of the late, legendary Jay Dee/J Dilla and M.F. Doom. Towards the end of the track Radius drops in a snippet of a different beat which perhaps serves as a subtle nod to his influences. Dilla and Madlib included short beat snippets at the end of the majority of tracks on their collaboration Champion Sound.

The two strongest tracks on the album are “Englewood (Necessary Growth)” and “Rogers Park (Northpole Bakery)”. The former opens with a sample from a lawyer in a courtroom reciting the definition of murder in Illinois. This is fitting for the track as Englewood is well known for the eighty-one murders which occurred between January and April of 1991. The song uses string and bell samples and what sounds like whistling, but upon closer listening is actually a sped up sample from a vocal melody. The latter features a deep bass line reminiscent of many that Dilla used as foundations in the beats he constructed for Slum Village. The highlight of the song is a deep pipe organ sample which is chopped up and accentuated on certain beats. If I’m not mistaken I also heard what sounds like birds chirping and could possibly have been taken from field recordings at Rogers Park.

My main criticism with Neighborhood Suicide is that many of the tracks tend to stretch out a tad too long. There are some good ideas on display here, but they would be executed much better if they were more concise. Radius has created a fine debut album and if he continues to refine his skills while shedding his influences he could soon be a premier producer of minimalist instrumental hip-hop.