Kool Keith as Mr. Nogatco - Nogatco Rd

Reviewed by row1 Sun 7 May 06

Most people (apart from Keith) will agree that 'Dr. Octagon' was one of, if not, his best releases.
With Keith and Dan the Automator (Octagon producer) not seeing eye to eye and Dr. Dooom killing Dr. Octagon it didn't look like there would be a follow up release.
Nogatco Rd (Dr Octagon spelt backwards) produced by Israel 'IZ-REAL' Vasquetelle isn't a direct sequel to Dr. Octagon but is the closest your are likely to get.

The story for the album is that there is a secret agency called NOGATCO (National Objectives for Governmental Astral-Terrestrial Covert Operations). Keith Thornton is hired under the code name 'Mr. Nogatco' for his experience with aliens, but he has his own agenda...

The intro 'No Head at All' uses a sample taken from the 1953 movie 'Phantom from Space' to set the scene for the album:

How would you feel if somebody with a crazy helmet with pipes sticking out of it came at you in the dark!
Look, I know this sounds crazy, but there wasn?t any head in that helmet.

After that the album starts on a high note with 'Bionic Fuse'. Bionic Fuse has a great UFO beat behind it thanks to Kevin Brouwers aka D Watcher. Keith also comes to town with some great lines like this:

With remote control Levis,
I wake up early,
Iron my power pants,
Stand in a power stance

The next two tracks are skipable, the guitar behind Dark Space is a bit annoying and it sounds like something from 'The Return Of Doctor Octagon' sampler.
In Dark Space Keith dismisses Octagon again:

Octo's hurt,
Octo's out,
Octos gone

Two thirds of the way through the next proper track Celestial there is a brief interview with Keith saying what he brings to hip-hop, once that finishes Keith comes back on fire and destroys the rest of track.

Keith was getting sick of the criticism (and bullshit) on his forum and recently shut it down. A line on 'Alpha Omega' lets people know what he thinks about the internet:

I didn't spend too much time like some guys eat and die by the websites,
Perverts and killers on the chat line,
In reality I hate that line,
Two thousand billion people bored to death moving a mechanical mouse up and down,
Cities all over the world get a life,
Turn off your Apple,
Take a shower,
800 pound women stop hiding behind the computer

The rest of the album is average but does finish quite well with 'Live Dissection'.

Most Kool Keith releases don't feature much in the way of bonuses, normally it's just a single paged front inlay and sometimes a music video.
Surprisingly Nogacto Rd has quite a few extras.
There is:

• A Nogatco Rd. Sci-Fi mini-movie (basically just three music videos).
• An 8 page comic book, which is a cool idea but its quite hard to read and it finishes very abruptly.
• A photo book which has a few cool snaps in it
• A sketch book.

While it is cool that they included some decent extras, it doesn't make up for the short album (around 35 minutes). At least Keith raps on it for longer than 10 minutes, unlike MF Doom in IZ-REAL's other production 'Venomous Villain'.

Overall its a good album, it was never going to live up the original Dr. Octagon album but its still worth the purchase, no doubt fans will pick it up anyway.
Nogatco Rd. was released the same day as Keith's other album Project Polaroid, Project Polaroid is the better album and if you can only cop one, get Polaroid instead.

Favourite Tracks:
Bionic Fuse, Celestial and Alpha Omega.
Note the track listing on Amazon is incorrect, there is no track called 'Nogatco Rd'