Seth P. Brundel

With a few exceptions (Arrested Development, anyone?), politically aware lyrical activists usually aren’t peace and loving hippies, but fire and brimstone warriors who advocate a violent overthrow of the system, despite the human cost. Seth P. Brundel, best known as one-half of the group Algorithm, is no different; his debut solo disc, Devil’s Pawn, is abrasively honest, the product of an admitted “manic depressive” struggling against conformity and repression.

“If you wish to overstand this,” he raps on “Self P.,” “Ascend to my throne/And observe feeble minds annihilating their own/Obliterating the planet they call home.” Accordingly, this hour-long re-education effort is unremittingly dark and voiced over his own muted, melancholy beats. “Ego Fuel” funnels a keyboard loop that simulates a NASCAR racetrack and, deeper in the mix, a plucked acoustic guitar. Another track, “Ego Fuel,” finds him teaming up with Doc Faust to become “Public Enemy with two Chuck D.’s” that are “too antisocial for unity.” On Devil’s Pawn, to paraphrase a PE track, Seth P. Brundel conducts war at 33 1/3 against the world and against himself.