Lee Bannon already dropped one themed EP on us earlier this year, with the ill-fated Gnarlon Brando record. The production wasn’ t bad, but the concept of a soundtrack to a fictional film didn’t pan out. When I saw the title to this EP, I was worried that the same thing might happen again, but Bannon has made it clear that this is EP isn’t directly interpreting or sampling the film score of the movie Caligula or attempting to tell the actual historical tale. Instead, it’s supposed to be about the “idea of Caligula.” I’m not exactly sure how we’re supposed to take that, but it does leave us more freedom to interpret the EP in the way we see fit.

So if we don’t need to focus on the theme of this EP, how does it measure on it’s own? To put it bluntly, it’s decent but boring. Bannon seems content to run in circles on this EP, creating mood, but never developing his ideas in any sort of interesting ways. Instrumental hip hop needs two things to be really successful - a strong starting point, whether it be a groove, riff, melody, or general atmosphere, and then it needs to be well developed over the course of a few minutes. While Bannon hints at the first part a couple of times, nothing ever becomes of these ideas, and interest fades instead of building as the songs progress. It’s not a very long EP, with seven songs clocking in at just over twenty minutes, but it feels much longer, because as a listener I often feel stuck in a rut as everything plays out. I keep waiting for a point of interest to appear, an entry way into the EP, but it just never happens.

For someone who is supposedly an up-and-coming producer, I haven’t heard a lot to get excited about out of Bannon. He’s not bad, but I’m still waiting on something to show me why he’s special. This year, he’s given us two forgettable instrumental EPs. Caligula Theme Music isn’t worth your time.