After five years apart and numerous side-projects, New York hip hop quartet Anti-Pop Consortium is sounding fresher than ever

In the words of LL Cool J: Don’t call it a comeback. Anti-Pop Consortium have been here for years. The three MCs — High Priest, M. Sayyid and Beans — and producer Earl Blaize joined together more than a decade ago, but creative differences forced them apart in 2002, resulting in a five-year split. Despite the gap, the group’s influential sound and style of delivery continues to sound fresh.

On the phone from a recent stop in Baltimore while on tour to promote APC’s new album, Fluorescent Black, M. Sayyid says the avant-garde hip hop quartet was motivated to reunite by a need to move forward and find strength in their connections. Each member used their time away to work on solo projects and collaborate with other artists, with Beans finding the most success with his two Warp Records releases, Tomorrow Right Now and Shock City Maverick. During this time, High Priest and M. Sayyid worked together under the name Airborn Audio and they all plan to maintain their personal projects, despite their reunion as APC. Throughout the break-up phase of personal development and individual experimentation, “the fire was always there” for the four members of APC, M. Sayyid says. “So we just continued to turn it up.”

Anti-Pop Consortium has been lighting up speakers with a style all its own since it emerged from New York’s underground hip hop scene in the early ’90s. A string of underground releases, including the group’s first full-length, Tragic Epilogue, brought APC a small measure of critical success and caught the ear of England’s Warp Records. Arrhythmia, the group’s second full-length, solidified its status as experimental legends in the world of hip hop, thriving on irregular beats. The glitch and raw rhythms of Arrhythmia inspired many followers, but with Fluorescent Black — the first of a two-record deal with Big Dada — it’s clear APC are still in search of boundaries to push and are still inventing. There are moments atypical of previous APC efforts, like the playful “Born Electric,” which starts with M. Sayyid crooning over a glassy piano overture. “End Game” and “Volcano” are two tracks that will likely resonate with fans of APC’s previous work, with their hard-hitting beats and rapid-fire delivery. There are enough bright spots throughout the 55-minute album to suggest APC has definitely found some new directions and will continue to find more.

Onstage, it’s the same. “The identity of APC is growing in a really ill way,” M. Sayyid says, alluding to the way each member onstage gets involved during the instrumental interludes — Beans gets on the synth while the other three tap MPC drum samplers — that pop up almost organically throughout each live show. “We’re going somewhere that’s not asking the crowd,” he continues. “We’re going somewhere within ourselves, internally but collectively as a clique.”

A disappointingly small crowd showed up to see Anti-Pop at its recent show in Toronto, but despite playing to a less-than-packed house, the interplay and energy between the four members onstage was electric, the four of them loving every minute of rocking the crowd once again. M. Sayyid says APC is never worried about the size of the audience. “The great thing is that we’re playing to ourselves — the audience is witnessing this experience,” he says. “It never feels empty. Even when it’s light, it doesn’t feel empty.”