Pitchfork

Prefuse 73 is Guillermo Scott Herren's best known project, but the busy songwriter/producer is prepping two other projects this spring. As we mentioned last week, Herren will release a new Savath & Savalas LP, and has produced a new record by Japanese rapper Twigy. (Of course, he's also working on a new Prefuse 73 double LP, too.)

Savath & Savalas cut "El Solitario" is as lonely as its title. The vocals are doubled up, but the feathery strings and single guitar still make "El Solitario" sound as if it were recorded in a bedroom, or a desert. Each verse's end is drawn out like smoke.

MP3: > Savath & Savalas: "El Solitario"
[from Golden Pollen; due in June on Anti-]

Herren's work on "Party It Out" lives another world away from "El Solitario". Japanese rapper Twigy is well-known in Japan, but here his best-known recordings are with DJ Krush and with Boredoms' Yamatsuka Eye. Fractured bits of vocals and guitar shape the song behind Twigy's fast Japanese rhymes.

Herren spoke with Pitchfork last week about producing Twigy's latest:

"It's the weirdest album I've ever had to produce, just based on the variation and diversity of the tracks," said Herren. "I watched him choose the most fucked up and challenging beats to calmly write to... I had to actually think twice about it because some seemed way too noisy or not so 'MC-friendly.'"

MP3: > MC Twigy: "Party It Out"
[from Akasatana; due in spring on Rush Japan]