Picking a group as source material for an EP is something that Blueprint has done a couple times now, first with Radiohead, then with Funkadelic, and now with The Who. It’s certainly a fun hook for an EP, and by keeping the project small, the idea runs its course without running out of steam. One of the nice things that Blueprint provides is a series of interviews with Roger Daltry, lead singer of The Who, providing some nice color to the release.

When you tackle a project like this, the biggest challenge is taking someone else’s music, leaving enough in that it’s recognizable, but changing enough that it becomes something new. This is something that Blueprint struggles with for the first two lackluster tracks that have difficulty finding the balance. When we get to the third song, “See Thru,” everything clicks. Print comes up with a great hook about the dangers of overplaying the victim card, and downplays a sample of “Baba O’Reilly,” that just adds color but stays in the background.

He accomplishes this again with “Feel Me,” but has a minor faux pas in “Pain,” which features Illogic and a great sample from the opening organ part of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” It works really well, but it also worked really well the first time those two both used the same sample on Illogic’s “1,000 Whispers” from Celestial Clockwork. I’m not sure what the logic was behind this, but I can’t help but wonder why on a five-song EP, we couldn’t find another song to play with from The Who’s vast catalogue.

As Blueprint is also in the habit of doing, he provides the instrumental tracks on the same CD. It’s a nice touch, and hopefully will inspire some people to make some remixes or to practice rhyming over some good beats.

This EP probably won’t blow you over, but it was never meant to. It does however provide an interesting repackaging of a group that is so prevalent in our culture that you often take them for granted. There aren’t any bad tracks, and there are a couple of really good ones. While I wouldn’t call this a full success, it’s at least an effort that I can appreciate.