![]() ![]() Lost Boys features an ambient sound and off-kilter beat that is somehow mesmerising, wrapping Ride’s homage to the lumpen-proletariat in its atmosphere. On I’ve Seen Footage we are treated to meaty videos of police brutality. On Get Got we are followed by police officers who aren’t actually there while our ears are filled with swirling synths that bleed into each other. With album artwork straight out of a manga from hell, Ride creates images of paranoia, intoxication and life in the gutter while production-wise, Hill and Flatlander perfect the sonic template laid down on ‘Exmilitary’ without repeating it. Where violence in hip hop is usually glorified, on ‘The Money Store’ it becomes nothing more than a harsh fact of life. Ride’s twisted lyrics and screamed vocal delivery are swallowed by the chaotic production but are worth reading into as they add a whole new dynamic to the overall product. Though rooted in traditional hip hop, ‘The Money Store’ is not particularly made for hip hop traditionalists. On certain tracks, Blood Creepin and I Want It I Need It (Death Heated), it can be a little over the top but otherwise, ‘Exmilitary’ makes for an intense listen purposefully unattractive, outrageous and frightening, it tells a tale of how addiction robs people of all rational thought and disposition. ![]() Opening track Beware begins with an excerpt from a Charles Manson interview which establishes the sociopathic persona of Ride a strange, volatile, devolving character who waxes lyrical about excess one minute, police brutality the next, and criticizes the information age after that. Littered with ingenious samples ranging from Link Wray’s Rumble to Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive, ‘Exmilitary’ is rowdy, bewildering and paints a hideous picture. Tracks like Guillotine and Takyon will either attract or repulse with their crawling low end roar and thick bass strikes, while Ride’s screams will either come across as a contrivance or an abstract craft. If you weren’t swept away in the whirlwind of what has been Death Grips’ career to this point, buckle up and get ready to get stuck right in: Exmilitary (2011, self-released)Ī conversation with any Death Grips fan who has been on the rollercoaster ride from the very start will tell you that the best way not to be afraid of their music is to start right from the beginning with their debut full-length because of just how polarising the sonic and lyrical content is. Death Grips are truly unpredictable, always doing what they can to keep their fans and critics at the edge of their seats. ![]() Maintaining a passive/aggressive relationship with their audience though Death Grips have pleased fans and critics alike with intense, genre-busting music but not without moments of disappointment, turbulence and longing that the group actively perpetuate with their fan base and the music industry through cancelled shows, their snake-like approach to interaction with the public on social networking websites and Internet forums, self-leaking their album ‘No Love Deep Web’ which lead to the termination of their major label contract with Epic Records (not to mention the very NSFW album artwork), forcing fans to wait 8 months between the release of the first half of their double album ‘The Powers That B’, ‘Niggas On The Moon’ and it’s second half ‘Jenny Death’, the unexpected break-up announced with a scribbled message on a napkin, the equally unexpected announcement through their Facebook profile that they ‘might make more’. Despite their stunning, relentless, unshakeable sound their style became quite diverse – for example, on their most accessible and pop-sensible album, ‘The Money Store’, the electronically based ‘No Love Deep Web’, the strange, fleeting and largely instrumental ‘Government Plates’ and the entirely instrumental ‘Fashion Week’. Since the release of their 2011 debut full-length, the ‘Exmilitary’ mixtape, the group have been revolutionising the underground music scene with their brand of brash, visceral, industrial hip hop and punk rock attitude. Experimental hip hop trio Death Grips was formed in Sacramento, CA by producer Flatlander, percussionist Zach Hill, and vocalist MC Ride. ![]()
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