Reviews of two new releases   Big L The Big Picture Priority/Rawkus For those who dig: Gang Starr, Tupac, Diggin' in the Crates In the past four years, a number of rap stars have returned to the essence too soon. The tragic murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. still haunt the Hip-Hop Nation, and Big Pun's death definitely slumped shoulders for a while. However, the mainstream press missed Big L's death by gunfire last year, mostly because L's prestige was a strictly underground phenomenon. Those on the lo-lo know the deal, though, giving up love for the departed MC when his name is called out. A member of the Diggin' in the Crates crew, Big L's witty punch lines punish ribs with laughter. His delivery rocks a beat like a dinghy struggling on the ocean's wild waves, whether he spits a battle rhyme or a real-life street tale or just talks shit. On "'98 Freestyle," he lets some cat have it with "You ain't a leader, what?/Nobody followed you/You was never shit/Ya mother should've swallowed you." DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Show, Lord Finesse and Ron Browz lace The Big Picture with bangers, and plenty of storied MCs from hip-hop history come to wreck tracks. Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, A.G., Sadat X, Guru and Miss Jones all get down on various songs, but it's the collaboration with Tupac Shakur that will pump fists up in the air. By the time the last track, "The Triboro," ends, there is that empty feeling that accompanies final recordings from deceased artists, the knowledge that there will be no new music from them to enjoy in the future. Raise ya L's up in the air for the dearly departed. Sincere   Written in Ashes Epiphany Raincloud Records Cross these other black cats' paths: Clan of Xymox, Bauhaus and, um, Radiohead & James Written in Ashes CD release Cobalt Lounge, 32 NW 3rd Ave., 225-1003 10 pm Friday, Sept. 8 $5 Few things warm the cracked, black cockles of music writers' hearts more than bands who break out of the mold--especially if those bands once adhered to their molds like Jell-O™. Case in point: Written in Ashes, who once played goth's gloomy clichés like a single-stringed violin, are no longer Johnny-two-note spooks and kooks. Oh, sure, no classic rocker's gonna hear Epiphany, trade their Birkenstocks for pointy biker boots and start writing woeful poems in the high-school library. But any growth--even a mossy, mysterious one--is always welcome. Witness "Shattered and Gone": guitars sting with a bumblebee buzz, then drift into melodic arpeggios after a mid-song shift to a gradual, spacious coda with sparkling, Liz Fraser-ish female vox. "And the Stars Sang" glistens with piano triads and ice-climbing guitar solos. The reverb-rich fingerpicking of "(When I) Knew" perches somewhere between the Cure and James' later work. And "Terrapin" crawls patiently through an echoing corridor of subliminal keyboards and slippery bass. "Wash Away" even ventures into gothic blasphemy--a major-key chord progression. (Heretics!) Effectively simple guitar and synth arrangements give the sound an enriching third dimension throughout, the songs no longer relying on linear basslines for thrust, and singer Kevyn Hay allows his voice to sneak out and play for a change, letting a little light mingle with the heavy drama. Like Pip in Miss Havisham's dust-choked room at the end of Great Expectations, Written in Ashes is starting to rip the curtains from their velvet-cloaked windows and get some fresh air. It feels better already. John Graham