Junk Science

2dbz premiere of Junk Science’s (Brooklyn duo of Baje One on the mic and DJ Snafu on the beats; reppin’ Embedded Music x Definitive Jux x Nuclear Family) new video off their upcoming release, A Miraculous Kind of Machine, dropping later this year. The really dope thing about this video is that it cost nothing as Baje states…

This is recession art. We made this video for zero dollars without ever stepping foot outside of our apartment. It only looks good because it was shot and directed and edited by Andrew Gura who is the motherfucking man who makes videos for Nas and Snoop and other famous people but who also happens to be a down-to-earth cool dude who just loves to do videos. - 2dopeboyz.com

Says Mike from Junk Science:

Me and Snafu met Homeboy Sandman when we were all guests on Billy Jam’s show on WFMU last Spring. [...] Anyway, while we were up there, Billy played ‘Mean Mug’ from Homeboy Sandman’s album and I was like ‘Oh, he’s on that shit too.’ We ended up going to his album release party and he came to ours, and so when Snafu and Scott started making the beats for ‘Phoenix Down’ we immediately thought of getting Boy Sand on the album. Sometime over the summer we got up and recorded this one

Junk Science & Scott Through’s Phoenix Down EP will be available May 31st on Modern Shark. - NahRight.com

Not much has changed since Baje One and DJ Snafu were teenagers.
From the day that the two bonded over hip hop while students at the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights — back when they were known primarily as Michael Tumbarello and James Christensen — they’ve been making music together, with Baje on the mic, Snajfu on the beats.
“We caught the bug, just being in New York during the indie hip hop scene in the mid- to late-’90s,” said Baje. “That was the thing to do, what we all wanted to do. We went to shows on school nights, stayed up late Thursday nights listening to Columbia University radio. It was super inspiring. It still continues to be inspiring when I think about it.”

Since their origins making tapes at Snafu’s house, the duo has released two albums of dusty, lo-fi tracks that show a love of everything from comic books and video games to beer (for “Gran’Dad’s Nerve Tonic” in 2007, Junk Science even teamed up with Red Hook’s Sixpoint Craft Ales to create a limited-release brew to coincide with the CD’s release).
For their third album, “A Miraculous Kind of Machine,” out May 25, the group looks to make it an event yet again, this time focusing on their aesthetic, starting with the CD, which features artwork designed by Alexis Negron.
“I want to make sure that whatever physical product the label releases is so beyond normal looking. It has to look amazing,” said Baje, who looks to collaborate with artists in his Brooklyn hip hop collective, Nuclear Family, on future releases.
The new CD, which Junk Science celebrates with a release party at the Knitting Factory on May 28, features lyrics that move from the playful to the more sentimental. Take the track “First Snow,” which uses an eight-bit Nintendo beat (these are video game nerds) to rap poetic about growing up in Brooklyn — and what it’s like to stay and watch it change.
“It’s about what it’s like to witness not just the change of a neighborhood, but to witness the coming and going, the death and disappearance of characters who make the neighborhood what it is,” said Baje, who was raised and still lives in Park Slope.
Another track — the down-tempo, contemplative “Miraculous Machines,” dedicated to the memory of their high school teacher Linda Gold, who passed away last year — also addresses growing up as Baje raps about “the view from the fountain of youth.”
“It’s about turning 30 and what it feels like to enter new phases of your life,” said Baje.
It looks like some things eventually do change.
Junk Science at the Knitting Factory [361 Metropolitan Ave. at Havemayer Street in Williamsburg, (347) 529-6696], May 28 at 9 pm. Tickets $12 in advance, and include a copy of “A Miraculous Kind of Machine.” For info, visit www.modernshark.com. - The New York Post

ollowing their critically acclaimed 2005 debut, Feeding Einstein, Nuclear Family members Baje One and DJ Snafu better known as Junk Science return two years later with Gran'Dad's Nerve Tonic (Definitive Jux/Embedded). Featuring a brew strange enough that even Cream could appreciate, the Brooklyn duo dishes out a wittily intoxicating concept album.

Maintaining their unique melange of dusty, lo-fi production, Junk Science cut and pastes together 14 concept driven tracks that revolve around the tonic mentioned in the title. DJ Snafu’s minimalist MPC work is one of the most charming qualities of this album. “Glass House” opens with DJ Snafu playing a violin sample backwards. As soon as he lets this sample play out, he gets to work on the MPC. Contrasting the tranquil violin lift with the hard-hitting MPC, Sanfu injects the sort of energy and creativity that is sorely missed in Hip-Hop. On “Do It Easy”, he blends up-tempo percussion with down-tempo melodic guitar playing. If Baje One’s message on this track was missed, the format of this unique composition clearly sheds light on theme that no matter how chaotic life gets, it is important not to get too strung out.

Even though a listener could easily pull the theme of the song solely from the production, this isn’t to say that Baje One’s lyric are too obscure to understand. Rather than focusing on expensive jewelry and cars, Baje One rhymes about unemployment, the science of Hip-Hop, video games, drinking, and the importance of living in the moment. Baje One’s flow is so laid back and hushed it molds itself right into the beat he is riding. On “Jerry McGuire,” he provides the rules on how to quit a job. The third rule offers an example of his subtle yet effective word play: “And three this is important be sure not to give notice because they won’t give notice when they fire you and you should know this.”

If an album’s only “faults” are that the skits should have been replaced with additional material or that it doesn’t fit the current pattern of glamorizing Hip-Hop artists, then the project not only is a success, but a move in the right direction. Gran'Dad's Nerve Tonic isn’t an opiate for the masses but accessible Hip-Hop that everyone can relate too. - ALLHIPHOP.COM

Equal parts Aesop Rock and Anticon crew, Brooklyn-based Junk Science's second album manages to visit traditional underground hip hop turf while still sounding fa-resh. — Angela Watercutter - Wired

Equal parts Aesop Rock and Anticon crew, Brooklyn-based Junk Science's second album manages to visit traditional underground hip hop turf while still sounding fa-resh. — Angela Watercutter - Wired

Junk Science proudly reps the more easygoing side of Brooklyn hip-hop, in which lo-fi beats and everyday raps are customary. Following up their well-received debut, Feeding Einstein, MC Baje One and beatmaker Snafu return for more calm and clever joints that may not get you hype, but are sure to spark thought and a few head nods. While Snafu provides the laid-back, sample-centric grooves, Baje works his storytelling magic on songs like "Jerry McGuire"-a vivid vision about quitting a dead-end job. It's not too often that hip-hop so real can provide such an escape. - XLR8R

Junk Science proudly reps the more easygoing side of Brooklyn hip-hop, in which lo-fi beats and everyday raps are customary. Following up their well-received debut, Feeding Einstein, MC Baje One and beatmaker Snafu return for more calm and clever joints that may not get you hype, but are sure to spark thought and a few head nods. While Snafu provides the laid-back, sample-centric grooves, Baje works his storytelling magic on songs like "Jerry McGuire"-a vivid vision about quitting a dead-end job. It's not too often that hip-hop so real can provide such an escape. - XLR8R

Rappers usually compare themselves to immortalized music icons like Biggie and Pac, but Brooklyn duo Junk Science takes it a step further with the John Lennon plot in their dope, twisted, new video. The clip almost feels like a bio-flick with a narrative that takes us through the Beatle's final days, Yoko Ono-omnipresence and looming Catcher In The Rye-reading psycho touches intact. There's a twist though, and the music is less "Imagine" and more mid-'90s underground hip-hop. If you like the Baje One rhymes and Snafu beats, check out the A Miraculous Kind Of Machine LP at their website. - Complex

Brooklyn-based duo Junk Science is on a two-man mission to shatter any and all preconceptions about how hip-hop is supposed to work. When you learn that MC Baje One and DJ Snafu came up on the left-of-center sounds of artists like The Goats and Mad Kap, things come into a bit more focus, but on their third album, A Miraculous Kind of Machine, Junk Science is definitively revealed to be working alongside the likes of Serengeti & Polyphonic, Busdriver, and LMNOP in terms of underground hip-hoppers seeking out new sonic sources. For his part, Snafu so completely transmogrifies the basic ingredients of his tracks that it’s usually tough to tell where they actually started out, but the end results — while consistently propulsive and hypnotic — have little to do with what you’re used to hearing on conventional hip-hop outings. If anything, they’re closer to Nightmares on Wax or Kahn than your usual hip-hop beatmeisters. And Baje One delivers a flow that’s simultaneously thoughtful and unrelenting, never reliant on braggadocio, and never shying away from a sensitive side that’s too often swept under the rug by other rappers. A Miraculous Kind of Machine points a peculiar but powerful way forward for hip-hop. - Limewire

The local hip-hop duo Junk Science is the m.c. Baje One and the d.j. Snafu. The two (whose real names are Michael Angelo Tumbarello and James Luther Christensen) met in high school in Brooklyn during the halcyon days of the Clinton Administration, and they have been trading old-school beats and clever rhymes ever since. They have a tongue-in-cheek attitude and a rewarding, wiser-than-their-years approach. They’re here to celebrate the release of their third album, “A Miraculous Kind of Machine.” - The New Yorker