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January 09, 2007
Macromantics: Moments in Movement
Kill Rock Stars, 2007
Rating: 3.4
It's hard to take newcomer threats by Romy Hoffman (performing as Macromantics)
seriously. On her debut album Moments in Movement, Hoffman self-promotes
through promises of violence as much as any MC, but she begins her shout-outs
with "Extra special thanks with a cherry on top." On "Locksmith," the token
autobiographical track, she follows Sage Francis' description of his father's
criminal past and fear of his missing parent's return with a monologue that
touches for half a line on anorexia but otherwise characterizes her as an
introvert who came out of her shell through rap. Even the cryptically grim
images of cuts like "Dark Side of Dallas" just come across as the products of an
active imagination. It's this innocence and imagination (plus her being
Australian) that put Hoffman outside of the mainstream American rap pantheon, a
characteristic that is at once refreshing and vexing. She doesn't boast about
her success with men or her sexual prowess, drops few references to
booty-shaking, and besides the brief snippet of bio and a few scattered
mentions, stays away from hard-bitten tales of daily life. Instead, she favors
stream-of-consciousness verbiage, half-descriptions of a multitude of small
scenes interwoven with proclamations of her skills, and repeat choruses. All of
that, plus crisp production, a natural wit ("She's so Bon she's Jovial"), and
consciousness of her status as an "absurdist wordsmith," means that Moments
in Movements is a solid debut by a charming ingénue. Unfortunately, charm
can only take you so far; Macro's acknowledgment that her rhymes are absurd
doesn't automatically increase their significance. Rather, the lack of defining
purpose makes Macro seem less a sophisticate than a narcissist, and repeated
reminders that "macronormous, that's the chorus" and other A-B refrains are
unfortunate reminders that she isn't even the most original of absurdists.
:::
Peter Landwehr
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