Can anyone ever complain about free music? Experimental hip-hop act Death Grips have been kind enough to drop a complimentary full-length (again). Their last album, leaked by the group without label permission, might have found them forcefully booted from Epic Records, but now Death Grips have the commercial and artistic freedom to basically be music's most generous sonic-psychopaths.
Government Plates is a face-to-the-curb onslaught of splintered sounds, tic-like profanities, and exhilarating industrial momentum. As chaotic as the Sacramento trio are, there is a precise vision behind the noise that holds the music together. Call it calculated insanity, tight looseness, or whatever oxymoron you may, Death Grips make hip-hop sound fresh and transgressive. There is nothing bland, safe, or pandering about their work.
Death Grips have handed listeners a relentless swirling stream-of-consciousness barely contained by its running time. This is intense stuff, though not without a bizarro sense of humor (the first Dylan-referencing track is called "You might think he loves you for your money but I know what he really loves you for it's your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat"). Best of all, it's yours for the low-price of $0. One can only say, "Thank you, Death Grips!"
We are coming up on the end of a really packed series of new releases. In the last two weeks, we have seen new albums from Cat Power, Animal Collective, Jens Lekman, Wild Nothing, The xx, Thee Oh Sees, etc. Quite frankly I am getting kind of anxious looking at this and have to stop now as I am now realizing I still have to listen to half of what I just listed (except The xx, am I the only one not that into them? Is there something I am missing?). Anyway, it can be easy to get fatigued with all these new releases on top of the bevy of new individual songs put out each week. Being flooded with this can be a challenge, but isn't it also invigorating? There is never an end to new music to explore and with that said, let us look at some of the best new songs released in the last 7 days. Today's column is unique in that I brought Mac in to write up another new song. So, you get 6 instead of 5. What a bargain!
Levek - "Girl in the Fog:" A gentle song reminiscent of Bon Iver but without all the baggage that we have all now associated with Bon Iver. "Girl in the Fog" is a simple piece of bedroom folk with quiet vocals winding around a very simple series of guitar chords. This is the third single off of Levek's upcoming LP, which will be released on September 25. One of the other singles, "French Lessons" is an equally interesting, albeit for different reasons, track that substitutes guitar with a catchy sampled melody straight out of one of those educational films you sometimes had to watch in elementary school. That might have seriously dated me as a reference so I apologize to any youthful types if that made no sense.
Captain Murphy - "The Killing Joke:" Another mysterious and well done track from the anonymous rapper that might be Tyler the Creator or might not be, but either way they are collaborating with Flying Lotus and that is really cool. Captain Murphy raps briefly between samples from Christopher's Nolan's Batman movies to creepy effect. The mysterious nature of these tracks has made this project, whatever it turns out to be in the end, especially interesting. Honestly, I think it would be great if this is all it turned out to be, a set of quietly released tracks with little fanfare and which don't amount to a full length album. We will see.
DIIV -"How Long Have You Known(Moons美愛Version):” Taking a standout track from DIIV's standout album, Moons remixes it into a slow moving track with Japanese vocals sung over and around the original refrain. The result is a completely different song, one as strong if not more interesting than its source materials. Definitely a highlight of the last few weeks.
Taken By Trees - "Large:" As if in anticipation of the arrival of autumn, this week's tracks all seem to be much more quiet and introspective compared to some of the stuff from a few weeks ago. "Large" is a mellow, spacey track mixing synths and strings to great effect. Taken By Trees' newest album will be out October 6.
Death Grips - "@deathgripz:" Death Grips have to be one of the more interesting acts to have come out recently. There is something intrinsically difficult to grasp yet deeply entertaining about the whole project. At every point, their music leaves little to grasp onto and urges us to keep listening to figure out exactly what is happening. This track seems to throw together several songs and alternates between them quickly, allowing, as I said, no time to really get a handle on each section.
Today we are joined by Mac McGuire, who I have asked to do a guest write up of his favorite new track this week. Atoms for Peace - "Default:" The newest single released from the upcoming project of
Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Red Hot Chili Pepper bassist Flea, and long time
Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the seemingly simple "Default" carries
over the eerie tension from Yorke's 2006 solo outing The Eraser. Soothing
synths slowly join Yorke’s all too familiar falsetto while a constant beat and
blips guide the tune. The yet to be titled full length album from Atoms
for Peace should see the light of day sometime next year.
Fucked Up - David Comes to Life: I listened to The Chemistry of Common Life as much as most people did, but I never wanted to praise it as much as a Polaris-Prize album deserved. I kind of missed the boat on it to be honest, I wasn't exactly ready for it. To me that record had a lot of indulgences that I wasn't really down with even if I did have some amazing songs on it. While the instrumental sections were beautiful they felt out of place on what was otherwise a sweaty hardcore record. I later found out how wrong this line of thinking thanks to revisiting it, and it's all thanks to 2011's David Comes To Life. The instrumental tracks do not make a return (save for the intro), and in place Fucked Up has inserted a narrative. That's right everyone, DCTL is a concept album. It's about a lightbulb factory worker who finds the love of his life and loses her to a horrible accident. The sense of ambition on this record is palpable, towering at an insane 78 minutes of aural assault. Over the course of this massive release our narrator goes through all the stages of grief in an interesting and relate-able way.
The sound of this record falls somewhere short of the ambition the band previously displayed on releases like Hidden World and Chemistry, and I'm thankful for that because the narrative of this record is daunting enough. The sound of this album is closer to Hidden World but lacks the epic jam-band aspects of that release. The instrumentation here is a lot more traditional than Chemistry, you won't find any flutes or horns. Structurally, Fucked Up has never been as straight forward and there's honest to goodness pop choruses littering the album. The guitars, while loud, are nowhere near as thick or physical as they've been in the past. The only place where the band hasn't made concessions towards making a typical indie-rock record is in Damian Abraham's vocals, which are as "hardcore" as they've ever been. It all results in an album rich with songs that I absolutely adore and an album I'll be revisiting for years to come simply to pick up on details in the narrative that I hadn't previously noticed. As well as rocking out, which is equally as important.
This album was clearly labored over in a way that no band of Fucked Up's ilk has ever attempted, in addition to this album's 18 tracks there are another 7 that were left on the cutting room floor. To make this album stand out even more the band recorded a fictional compilation of 10 different bands in David's fictional hometown of Byrdsdale Spa, UK. On that compilation Fucked Up attempted to sound like 10 different bands, and largely succeeded. Though most of this material is hit or miss and by no means essential: If you consider the entire thing one project it spans an amazing 35 tracks and over 2 hours. It's that sense of tireless ambition that makes David Comes to Life my favorite album of the year.
Honorable Mention
La Dispute - Wildlife: I sincerely apologize for this, but I'm picking another story driven hardcore album. This one is from Michigan's La Dispute. The thing that really drew me to this band is their elements of spoken word, it's incredibly interesting and gives them the ability to make their stories as dark and as detailed as they want them to be. The stories contained within paint a picture of the darkest aspects of human existence. The highlight comes on "King Park" which sets the scene of a drive-by shooting that hit an innocent target. You hear our narrator construct the scene of the crime and the victim's funeral. After the set up the narrator overhears the killer's arrest and hears him lament - "CAN I STILL GET INTO HEAVEN IF I KILL MYSELF"? At this point my jaw drops and I'm shaken by the devastating turn the song has taken, it is in that moment that I fell in love with this band. It's emotional hardcore without any of the bullshit that's typically attached to it. It's a record about growth, illness, and feeling trapped. I know a lot of people can't stomach emotional hardcore but in this case it's actually because of the subject matter. It's an album that will make you think and probably make you cry a little bit too --- it'll make you feel terrible in all of the best ways imaginable.
"River" by Arctic Death (self-titled): Sometimes it's the simplest things that make you fall in love with a song, and that is truly the case with "River". I'm absolutely mesmerized by John Crook's vocal performance throughout the entire song, but the moment that really speaks to me is in the chorus. After John repeats "you won't" a few times he sings the line "I didn't mean what I said" in an absolutely gorgeous and squaky falsetto. In my opinion the thing that Arctic Death does best is beat the LoudQuietLoud structure popularized by the Pixies 20 years ago over the head and make it their bitch, but they do it in a garage rock asthetic. Instead of screaming as someone like Charles Thompson would the band goes for the gut with the most beautiful moments this side of a Walkmen record. I wait for the day that Arctic Death begins to expand beyond out local scene because I believe it WILL happen. There's too many amazing aspects of their music that go beyond what a local band should be able to produce. Please Buffalo, go out and support them because bands like Arctic Death are the entire reason this blog exists.
Honorable Mentions
"30" by Danny Brown (XXX):The first thing I need to mention about Danny Brown is how hilarious his music is, but he also can be quite dark. This particular song has a slow beat with sinister sounding synthesized horn and guitar. Danny's music always has an element of humor and this song is no different, with Danny spitting "Came a long way from extension cords in the window, borrowing neighbors power just to plug up the Nintendo". On "30" he uses so much energy that you practically have to beg for the song to end. I've tried many times to determine an exact amount on the number of flows Danny Brown uses in this song and have determined that I can't count that high.
"Takyon" by Death Grips (Ex Military):Death Grips is a werdo hip-hop group out of California that I did an artist spotlight for on this very blog a few weeks ago. The beat here is what really makes the track stand out for me. It's got a bass patern that is repeated several times that could totally rip your home, car, or sub-woofer apart. The sampled bits of Zach Hill's drumming are absolutely fantastic and MC Ride makes you terrified of every upcoming second. Besides, how can you not love a song with the opening line "Triple Six, Five, Forked Tongue"? My overall enjoyment of this song can be summed up with the following: Oh, shit I'm feelin' it. TAAAAKYONNN.
Fucked Up at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto (June 16th, 2011,NXNE Festival): I struggle to even have words to describe this show. Not only is this the best show of the year for me, it's far and away the best show I've ever been to. Seeing one of my favorite bands in their hometown city with a crowd of thousands under a hot and clear summer sky was wonderful. It was a sweaty and beautiful mess in ways that the Town Ballroom stop on the tour could not, and didn't live up to. As I slammed my body against that of Damian Abraham while he was performing I couldn't help but think that seeing Fucked Up is a religious experience, and I'm a believer. I don't even need to go into further detail of why this show was so amazing because almost the entire show is on YouTube in high quality. Enjoy --- I know I did. (did I mention it was my birthday?)
Lightning Bolt at Soundlab (April 1st, 2011):If I had to pick my favorite noise band it would probably be Lightning Bolt because of their musicianship. Brian Chippendale is known for his chops, but I'd argue that nothing he does is all that technical from a musical standpoint. He just plays faster and more chaotic than anyone with the possible exception of Zach Hill. It's his lack of structure that really drives the band forward. Brian Gibson on the other hand is the real thing that makes seeing Lightning Bolt a real treat. The things he can do with a bass defy logic, using the right effects he can create virturally any sound he likes but it's usually the guttural tones that get the most attention. Speaking of Gibson, he's crafted his entire life building his collection of amplifiers and it nearly hit the ceiling. The band determined the venue was too small to play on the floor, but it still felt like an intimate show. I'm sure you can guess what all of this noise sounds like, but in case you can't...
(not from soundlab, nobody was recording)
Have a great new years and let's hope 2012 is as great as 2011 was.
Death Grips is a 3 person hip-hop act with everyone having creative input in all aspects of their music, but they're anything but typical. They recently self-released a mixtape entitled Ex-Military. It's available through the band's official site (for nothing) and also through iTunes (for $10).
When I first heard that Zach Hill was starting a hip-hop project, I can't say I wasn't skeptical. The guy is a total legend to me as I'm a huge fan of Hella, but what does a tall, skinny, bearded, white drummer know about hip-hop? As it turns out? Not a whole lot... and Death Grips is probably better because of it. Death Grips' sound as a result is anything but conventional. Zach's influence can be heard in the walls of noise and skittering beats that permeate the group's sound, and his trademarked frantic drumming can be heard on "Thru The Walls". Speaking of that song, it's got a bizarre hella-esque tempo and some unique instrumentation including some creepy synthesized sounds and an ending interlude that almost sounds like house music. Death Grips is a very indulgent group, and there's a number of interludes and instrumental tracks on here to keep things interesting.
Still with me? Good, because here's where things start to get a little weird.
The real star of the show is MC Ride, and here's the thing... He SCREAMS at you like a deranged homeless person for the duration of their debut mixtape. MC Ride is Scary Motherf*cker (thanks Dead End Hip-Hop). He's the kind of guy you don't want to sit next to on a bus (Side note: before the band released Ride's name I knew him exclusively as Mysterious Bearded Black Man). The thing is, despite the abrasion he's a wonderful lyricist. Notably on "Takyon (Death Yon)" he drops the line: "Cryonic haunted bullets hollow tipped with toxic waste" in the middle of a verse. It's the kind of line that just makes my jaw drop each and every time I hear it, and it's stuck with me for a long time now. He can also be quite vulgar, spitting "Responsibility's cool, but there's more things in life. Like getting your dick, RODE ALL F*CKING NIGHT" on "I Want It I Need It (Death Heated)".
Their music is LOUD, angry, dark, and highly experimental. The fact of the matter is, these guys will not appeal to most fans of garden variety hip-hop or even most avante garde hip-hop. Your best chance to be into what Death Grips does is to already be someone that loves Punk, Noise, and Industrial music. Death Grips is a great listen for anyone looking for something new in hip-hop that isn't afraid of a little adventurousness. It's not your basic truck banger, that's for sure.
Well unless you're awesome, then it's totally a trunk banger. Just don't get arrested for disturbing the peace.
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