ip hop is all about image. Whether you're Puff Daddy flashing ice from Bentleys or DMX flashing gats from street corners, everyone in hip hop puts forth a persona. It's the nature of the game - after all, the genre was born of basic battle raps, verbal chess matches to see whose lyrical prowess reigned supreme. Now (for better or worse) boasting about your image matters as much as lyrical skill - some would argue that it matters more. Puffy even brags, "Who cares if I write rhymes, I write checks." Obviously, the majority of the millions who buy his albums agree.

Of course, it's easy to point out that most popular music thrives on image as well. Staind and Linkin Park move plenty of units by convincing teens they are just as angst-filled and depressed as the next 16-year-old, while Britney Spears struts on TV with moves that are practically destined for Pepsi commercials ('Pop Princess' indeed). Who cares if she lip-syncs in concert? The image-before-music phenomenon affects all music genres.

However, independent music strives to cast off this image and get to the music. That's practically the difference between 'pop' and 'indie.' Pop must be sold, and image is far easier to sell than music. Indie concerns itself primarily with music instead of sales, and therefore requires no image. This distinction seems pretty pat until you bring up independent hip hop.

Antipop Consortium is indie hip hop by anyone's definition. They experiment and sound weird. They don't go platinum (or even gold). They're on Warp Records. However, Antipop relies on image just as much as Puffy, Fabolous, or Britney. Their image is simply that of "experimental indie hip hop." That's ultimately what dooms The Ends Against The Middle.

I'm not criticizing reliance on image. Nor am I criticizing an effort to push the boundaries of hip hop. What I'm criticizing is the creation of an edgy, experimental image at the expense of making good music. Not that this EP is terrible. It shows promise, especially in the squelchy, analog funk of the opener "Tuff Gong," which often brings to mind a more polished version of El-P's production on Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein. But too much of The Ends Against The Middle sound like pure wankery, studio cast-offs, and, at the worst, nonsensical jamming. I'm all for injecting some avant-garde into hip hop, but don't give me two minutes of bleeps and bloops over some random synth-organ chords, name it "Pit," and call it hip hop.

"Pit" is the worst of the bunch, though. "Splinter" is a nice cut of some spare digital psychedelia, although the monotone rapping comes off as self-consciously abstract, and manages to surpass the 3-minute mark, which no other track on the EP can boast. "Dystopian Disco Force" meshes electro with some free-jazz organ on top - interesting, but ultimately repetitive, even at two minutes. "Perpendicular" melds a great groove with some New-Agey piano, reminiscent of Protection-era Massive Attack (but without the cheese). "Vector" has the best rapping of the disc, but it's obscured by too many shimmery digital effects fluttering from ear to ear (the move to Warp might be to blame, this crap is on almost every track).

The Ends Against The Middle shows plenty of promise, but its reach far exceeds its grasp. The production is innovative, but needs focus and less reliance on gimmicks like shiny computer chirps. And melding of genres is good, as long as it isn't so self-conscious. Finally, these guys need to make a song that can hold up for longer than two minutes. Seven tracks in 17-minutes hardly seems worth it. It's cool to be interesting, but I'm in it for the music. Pass me the Timbaland.