It’s damn hard to describe the Prefuse 73 sound. Not even Guillermo Scott Heren, the shy Atlanta-native who is Prefuse 73, seems to have an answer.
We knew we shouldn’t have asked him to categorise his sound, but couldn’t help ourselves. He sighs. “I don’t know. That’s for other people to decide.”
He has, in the past, spoken of wanting to rebuild hip-hop from the ground up. His records are a powerful articulation of this desire. Listening to a Prefuse album is like flicking through a hip-hop radio dial. There are bursts of sound, colour, nonsense and unfamiliar noise.
Which brings us to his new LP, Security Screenings. Clocking in at 17 tracks, the record is similar in sound and style to previous albums such as One Word Extinguisher and Surrounded By Silence. In some respects it is also quite different.
His previous two albums were full of collaborations, featuring the likes of Wu-Tang’s Ghostface, RZA and Masta Ace, El-p, Broadcast, Daedelus, Mr Lif, Tommy Guerro and Beans.
This time the only outsiders are TV On The Radio and Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden. Why? “Well, I guess I just didn’t feel like it this time,” he offers.
Collaborations are obviously an important creative impetus. How does he choose who to work with?
“I have sex with them first,” quips Heren. Really? “No – I guess it’s just interesting people that I meet on tour or some people that I know.”
What current hip-hop acts does he enjoy?
“Of the commercial stuff, I’d say people like Young Jeezy (also from Georgia) and some of the new Pharrell Williams stuff that I’ve heard.”
Has the UK’s grime/dubstep movement been an influence?
“Not really. I think that’s a sound that has missed me by a generation,” he laughs. “I don’t listen to too much hip-hop at home because my girlfriend is expecting a child in a few months.”
So what’s on the stereo?
“Stuff like Jose Gonzalez. More laidback things.”
Security Screenings feels like an album made by a man in a happy place. The light-hearted mood and B-movie samples are in contrast to 2003’s One Word Extinguisher, which apparently was written while Guillermo was in the midst of a painful break-up.
One influence on the new music has been a move to Barcelona, where he went to find out more about his Catalan father.
Nothing if not prolific, he is already at work on a new album. Like everything he has done so far, this promises to be something special.