Produced entirely by Kno, the album’s pace is handled excellently as each song bleeds into the one right after it. Many listeners won’t pick up on the subtleties of Kno’s well placed samples, such as “Predormitum (Prologue)”, which teases a classic B.I.G. verse, only to literally lead into “Darkness”, at which point the dream has taken shape. This brooding vibe carries throughout much of the record, excellently manifesting itself in both “Hard As They Come (Act 1)” and “Murder (Act 2)” – two back to back songs in the same key (another subtlety) – where Deacon, Kno, Freddie Gibbs, and Big K.R.I.T. ponder the meaning of death at their hands.

Kno’s sound is as ethereal as usual, using 60′s folk vocal samples, slow burning drums, and heavy, atmospheric basslines. Much like early Dungeon Family records, his production takes the listener into the abyss, as Deacon paints steam-of-consciousness pictures on tracks like “Shattered Dreams” and “Starts Shine Brightest”. The crown jewel is the topic at hand itself, “Dreams”, as Deacon and crew claw at a blurred barrier of waking life.

Phenomenally produced and soulfully rhymed, Cunninlynguists have done it again with Oneirology. While it did take the crew a while to settle in on a defined membership and style to call their own, at this point they have easily carved out their niche and are filling it perfectly. Finally earning their respect in the rap game, Oneirology is the group’s dream defined.

Natti, Deacon The Villain & Kno return with the first leak from Oneirology, their newest studio album since 2007′s Dirty Acres. “Stars Shine Brightest (In The Darkest Of Night)” is a battle-cry for anyone just trying to make it through the struggle, which nowadays includes nearly all of us. Keep on pushing!

Official video for Kno’s (CunninLynguists) track “La Petite Mort (Come Die With Me),” off his debut LP, Death Is Silent. Video directed by Matt Hobbs.

Here are a few words from Kno about the video: “The treatment of the video as I wrote it was to tell the story of what I like to call the ‘Jesus Complex’ in relationships, where people have a tendency to be attracted to those who appear to need help or were mistreated by others. We often think our new object of affection is perfect and simply met with a string of bad luck or cold-hearted suitors only to realize that the problem in that person’s past relationships may have been, in fact, that person themselves. If you have issues finding true love maybe YOU’RE the asshole — it isn’t necessarily everyone else’s fault. One to grow on.”

Cunninglynguists producer Kno might just be the most underrated producer in all of Hip-Hop. His plush soundscapes have powered his group and the collective known as QN5 to success and a pretty solid cult following over the past decade. But the time has come for Kno to step from behind the board and in front of the microphone for his solo debut titled Death Is Silent.

Any apprehensions that Kno may fail without his Cunninglynguist family can be wiped away as Kno comfortably slips on the emcee role and handles it well. Kno’s production – featuring bounding guitar plucks and hard to recognize samples bottomed out with dense bass – hovers around the producer-turned-emcee’s words about death in the physical and spiritual form like vultures. It’s a beautiful clash of splendor and darkness that works quite well for the part time emcee.

Most songs here are of the cinematic vibe. The instrumentation weaves the story as good – if not better – than the vocals. But never is the production too overpowering. The beauty of songs like “Spread Your Wings” is how haunting the strings and vocal samples truly are as they support the Kno and Deacon’s narrative about women who walk out of their respective lives. “When I Was Young” is another high point on the album as Kno, Natti and Substantial reminisce on yesteryear when what was considered difficult as a child is appreciated as an adult.

Sure, Kno isn’t a lyrical wizard but he does enough to breathe life into each of his compositions. Sometimes he sounds awkward over his own production but you’ll be hard pressed to find many rappers who can rock over Kno’s lush production.

It’s a shame that Kno isn’t better known outside of the QN5 faithful. What he possesses as a producer rivals that of some of the industry’s finest beatsmiths. Add that to the fact that he can kick a rhyme or two and you have a project that is worth mention as one of the year’s best.

A HipHopSite.Com / The Well Versed Collaboration

Death Is Silent, the solo debut from CunninLynguists‘ producer and emcee Kno, is set to be released on October 12th 2010.

While handling nearly all of CL’s production since the group’s inception in 2001, his emceeing has more recently taken a backseat to his beats — and it has shown. Fueled by Kno’s lush production techniques, A Piece of Strange currently ranks as the #8 release of 2005 (and the only hip-hop release in the Top 30) at high traffic web community RateYourMusic.com, Dirty Acres was awarded “Album Of The Year” honors by UndergroundHipHop.com for 2007 and both of 2009’s compilation releases, Strange Journey Volume One and Two, were given “Top Ten Albums” honors at 2DopeBoyz.

After amassing only 4 verses over the CunninLynguists’ last four releases, the Atlanta-based artist is set to step out from behind the boards on Death Is Silent, both producing the entirety of the record and handling the majority of the vocals. The record’s concept involves the inevitability of death and its impact on love, life, family and friends. The artwork was realized by Argentinian visual artist Diego Fernandez.

Kno will still see plenty of activity on the production side of things, as the next 6 months will see the release of Oneirology, CunninLynguists’ newest studio album in 3 years, Chico and The Man, the long-awaited concept album with fellow QN5 Music artist and longtime friend Tonedeff as well as MacheteVision, a joint project with emcee Marq Spekt.

While all of these releases will be produced entirely by Kno, his production will also be featured on upcoming projects by Freddie Gibbs, 9th Wonder signee Tom Hardy as well as the album Niggaz With Latitude, a group project from CL’s own Deacon The Villain and Sheisty Khrist.

Death Is Silent will be released on CunninLynguists’ own imprint APOS Music and will be distributed by Traffic Entertainment Group.

Pre-orders begin right here at QN5.com on September 3rd 2010.

The label with no rich relatives, QN5 Music, released this tantalizing image today, stating QK10, announcing a list of projected releases scheduled for release this year. No dates have been attached, but the list reads like this:

PackFM & Domingo – I F*cking Hate Rappers
Substantial – Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood
Tonedeff & Kno – Chico And The Man
Mr. SOS – Cassette Verite
QN5 Music – Asterisk:Five
Kokayi – Robots & Dinosaurs
Kno – Death Is Silent
Deacon The Villain & Sheisty Khrist – Niggaz with Latitude
CunninLynguists – Oneirology
Tonedeff – Deffinitions Vol. 2

Nice title Deacon and Sheisty. But are you guys trying to start a beef with the Brothers With Longitude?

    While the remix is certainly not a new medium, 9th Wonder’s renovation of Nas’ God’s Son (God’s Stepson) not only opened the floodgates; Soul Supreme followed that up with his rendition of Stillmatic and MF Doom took a hodge podge of his older instrumentals and wrapped them around Nas’ Nastradamus; it ushered in hip-hop’s latest trend. 

    The latest to undergo the remix treatment is Jay-Z, who unlike Nas, had to foresee the slew of remix projects that would inevitably crop up in the wake of making an accapella version of The Black Album available.  The one anomaly here is that ever since Nas dropped his debut opus, Illmatic, he has been harshly criticized for following them up with under-produced LP’s.  That cannot be said of Jay-Z, who minus a few hiccups over the course of his career has managed to align himself with a who’s who list of producers with The Neptunes, Just Blaze, Timbaland, and Kanye West (some of whom he gave their first real break).

     Beating everyone but DJ Lt. Dan to the remix punch in 2003 was Kev Brown’s The Brown Album.  And though Kev held true to the formula by hand-picking selected tracks to remake, the nostalgic feel of 9th Wonder and Soul Supreme’s endeavors are replaced by a studio polished sound that its predecessors choose to eschew.  Being a former member of DJ Jazzy Jeff’s A Touch Of Jazz production squad, the organic, nuevo soul sound that the crew had become synonymous for is etched all over The Brown Album; the smooth snare claps and vocal “ooh’s and ahh’s” of “Threat” and the crisp hi-hats and slowly eloping guitar licks from “Moment Of Clarity” both create a quiet storm that accentuates two of Jay’s lyrical standouts.  And while the down-tempo strains of “Lucifer” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” lack energy, the dramatic harpsichord sweeps and Marshall Law’s DJ Premier-esque cutting add a welcome element to “December 4th.”

     Kno (Of Cunninlynguists)’s The White Albulum is the most expansive, as he covers The Black Album in its entirety and it’s possibly the best of the bunch.  Though Kno’s drums are slim at times and he adds an all too familiar element to “December 4th” and “Moment Of Clarity” by freaking the same sped-up voice samples that Just Blaze and Kanye West already liberally employ, Kno has a great ear for melody and arranging as he transforms DJ Quik’s feeble “Justify My Thug” into a neck-nodding exercise, recasts “Allure” with shimmering urgent strings and adds breezy horns to “Change Clothes” and Kno even melds Pharrell’s voice with the same key as the sample.  And while the dramatic feel of “What More Can I Say” is refurbished with a minimal string arrangement that fails to move, “99 Problems” captures the same old-school energy and enthusiasm the original exuded and the female vocal sample included on “Lucifer” is ever so fresh. 

     The Black Jays (Kardinal + Solitair) attempt at lending their resonance, The Black Jay’s Album, to Jigga’s already enticing lyrics quickly becomes a mismatch.  Not only does the duo bring nothing new to the table, but they actually make Jay-Z sound like he is a mediocre emcee (which is quite an accomplishment).  The plodding “December 4th” has zero soul, “Moment Of Clarity” comes off as utterly lifeless and “Threat” is stripped off any redeeming qualities.  The only saving grace from the Black Jays is their reggae tinged adaptation of “Lucifer.”

     It should go without saying that the producers here are very familiar with the fact that these remix endeavors draw allot of attention, so while each is successful in their own way at affixing their own unique stamp onto Jay-Z’s supposed farewell, there’s also little debating that the rash amount of remixes have now milked a once intriguing concept completely dry.  Yet, as long as labels make accapella LP’s available, producers are going to twist them.  The only question right now is who’s next on the menu (Ghostface Killah, Kanye West) to be remixed in the immediate future?