Antipop Consortium’s debut announced the arrival of three major talents: M. Saayid, a surgically precise MC’s MC, Beans, a charismatic tongue twisting rapper with an absurdist flair, and High Priest, a gravel voiced surrealist. Each man also produced tracks. The Consortium, aided by producer/engineer Earl Blaize, rhymed over icy electronic soundscapes, very different from the sample-based boom bap that dominated the underground rap universe at the time. They were absolutely astounding in concert, programming their show live on impressive arrays of hardware controllers, uncorking long and involved verses, playing off of each other’s energy. This album, the aptly named Tragic Epilogue, captures that moment in time.