New Music – Uncle Ricky’s Dead
How many records does that make for BONES now, I mean we have to be well into the hundreds since his first initial inception from the grave. From the foundations of forming TeamSESH which has become an underground hip-hop army at this point, InLovingMemory gives one more insight into the dead prince of rhyme.
With his third drop of 2021, InLovingMemory is not just a pretty ringing name; BONES slides back into these moments where his mixtape era of his classics like Paid Programming, Skinny, Cracker, or even his work with Rotten. In a way 2014-2015 was a golden era for BONES and pulling into those selected sounds is a thrill as hair stands on the neck and the blade seems closer than ever.
Especially on the VHS cracking instrumentation of the self-titled track, “InLovingMemory” which takes an ethereal summoning from the tomb as support while a chilling tonality creeps into the ear. With headphones on, BONES is able to slide through the speakers as the fog creeps across the bedroom floor, engulfing the room eventually as he stands a figure in all black surrounded by silver chains.
The production from greaf is outstanding and perfectly encapsulates those cellar doors being ripped off as the humanization of the grim reaper walks in. Describing, “Walk up in your spot and watch me turn it to a grave, put them drugs up in my face and watch me turn into a slave… Ear to ear, I’m who they fear, they know I bloody up the place. Grip that pistol with precision, Anne Nicole, yeah all my bitches dead, dead.” What’s more precise, the skeletal hand in the face pulling the audience toward the earth, or the delivery from BONES on the following track, “GoHardHuh?”
He uses production from stereoRYZE which taps back to a long-standing partnership since Banshee in 2015. While the track is only a minute and 16 seconds, “GoHardHuh” sits upon references to Goyard and Buffy The Vampire Slayer that are glorious and cut directly to the dirt which were covered by the rivers somewhere lost in the deep backwoods of Michigan.
Almost like a symphony of the night, the work from stereoRYZE becomes this bounce on the 808s over a cathedral of keys where Alucard would be jealous. Illustrating, “Skinny pimp up in your house, shotgun rob sum’ if you think you know what I’m about. I’m a slayer at the function, she got with the prince like Buffy.” While BONES seems to be better suited while dipped in despair, later pieces like “IThinkIWillBeOk” which features more sung vocals from BONES are actually fairly angelic and flaunt his ambidextrous nature with the voice.
Swapping from rapping to singing, BONES is not a stranger to it but to see “IThinkIWillBeOk” thrive so well on a greaf beat is reminiscent of SurrenderDorothy which quickly captured those emotions of sunlight creeping through the window. “IThinkIWillBeOk” is similar with mostly an acoustic instrumental on guitar and some fairly basic synthetic percussion snaps on the snare to fit the frame.
BONES teeters between past personas and a forward progression which ultimately, interferes with the mind and becomes almost hypnotizing to the ears. As the nervous system adjusts forward to the cracks and hiss of vinyl again, InLovingMemory is fit for a funeral.
Listen To InLovingMemory Here!!! – Soundcloud/Spotify/iTunes
STREAMING // (Track) Feminazgul – “A Mallacht”
Listen Here – BandCamp
STREAMING // (Album) Déhà – “Doomed Youth”
Listen Here – BandCamp
Cover By: Walrus
Logo By: Mederick Infekt
Track List: Devil’s Words, Better To Reign In Hell…, Snake Of Gloom, At The Onset Of The Age Of Despair
STREAMING // (Album) Home Is Where – “I Became Birds”
Listen Here – BandCamp
Produced, Mixed, + Mastered By: Matt Goings
Drums: Josiah Gardella
Guitar: Trace George
Tantrum, Harmonica, Singing Saw: Brandon Macdonald
Bass: Connor “fat slaps” O’Brien
Synths + Tambourine: Matt Goings
Horns: Wes Meadows
Violin: Christiana Patterson
Track List: L. Ron Hubbard Was Way Cool, Long Distance Conjoined Twins, Sewn Together From The Membrane Of The Great Sea Cucumber, The Scientific Classification Of Stingrays, Assisted Harakiri, The Old Country
STREAMING // (Video) Chief Keef – “The Talk”
Listen/Watch Here – Youtube
Produced by: Akachi Glo
Directed: Damien Wayne
Shot: Luca Nv
Vfx: nitetive
Edited: Damien Wayne
Gfx: Joshua Yakie
STREAMING // (Album) Bill Waves X Big Jerm – “Big Waves”
Listen Here – Soundcloud
Produced, Mixed, + Mastered By: BIG JERM
Written, Recorded, + Performed By: BILL WAVES
Track List: BIG WAVES, EAST SIDE 4 LYFE, DREAMIN’, 2002, FLOAT, BOB AND WEAVE, SCHOOL HIGH, DAYDREAMS AND NIGHTMARES, JEWELZ, BILLY CASH, THE MISSION, THE COLDEST WINTER, OFF PROBATION
Classic Day – Emaciated Paws
More unique for the vocal outlet and sound in addition to the more grotesque styles of instrumentation, the Dead Kennedys 1982 record Plastic Surgery Disasters takes nearly 43 minutes of explosive but sequenced suicide-bombings through speakers.
Like a rabid dog with a freshly killed animal’s bones, Dead Kennedys are impossible to pin down on the instrumental progression with these raging performances as the next step from their debut record, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. The stepping stone comes from the first musical track, “Government Flu” where the rampant guitars from East Bay Ray and string sections on bass from Klaus Fluoride are prideful but have this sadistic undertone to them. Quickly, the percussion from D. H. Peligro blasts onto the scene, and the lead vocalist’s first appearance, Jello Biafra begins to shout over the more hardcore-centric instrumentation.
Describing, “We got a drug, we’re gonna try it out on you. Won’t make you die, it’ll get ya just a little bit sick.” When images of 2020 flash into the brain, the chorus describes, “got a head cold, got a chest cold, and it’s three days old. Make you hazy, make you lazy, make you crazy. For days and days and days and days and days, and years.” While “Government Flu” has no real moments of winding down, the following track “Terminal Preppy” is an even faster and more belligerent assault to the audience.
Similar to the live performances from Dead Kennedys, the band is all over the place on Plastic Surgery Disasters, but the work of the saxophones from Dave Barrett and Bruce Askley on “Terminal Preppy” are godlike in orchestrating a form of both a laugh and dialogue for the audience. The bass is catchy from Fluoride, giving Dead Kennedys this method to the madness where underneath all that rapid-fire charm, are some truly intricate and talented musical presentations.
It feels like each track on Plastic Surgery Disasters is better than the last with “Trust Your Mechanic” leading into “Well Paid Scientist,” finally rounding the corner with “Buzzbomb” where the one-two snaps of the percussion are like whiplash to the head. The instrumental here is the main attraction as Biafra shouts nearly in operatic methods with these wails and vibrato styles to match the waving production.
Most of Biafra’s unique vocal falsettos become more than the natural range for his voice, giving Dead Kennedys some power to work with tone in music. With the track “Bleed For Me,” a guitar from East Bay Ray matches Biafra’s often high-pitched delivery and takes a mosh pit-inducing instrumental as a coalition. Also highlighting some calming torture tactics, Biafra describes, “In the name of world peace, in the name of world profits. America pumps up our secret police. America wants fuel, to get it, it needs puppets. So what’s 10 million dead, if it’s keeping out the Russians?”
As the instrumentation begins to get faster and faster, the trip down the bridge back to the main riffs are welcome enough to cover the flag not in pride and emotion, but instead in blood and misery.
Ending finally on a high note of nuclear immolation, “Moon Over Marin” is the closest radio-friendly output from Plastic Surgery Disasters that Dead Kennedys can give. The cheerful guitars almost illicit the feeling of yacht rock but with the morose and nihilistic ability of writing that Dead Kennedys are the kings of.
Illustrating a world torn apart by harmful gas and pollution, Biafra describes, “The crowded future stings my eyes, I still find time to exercise in a uniform with two white stripes. Unlock my section of the sand, it’s fenced off to the water’s edge. I clamp a gas mask on my head.” When the guitar reaches this breaking point, the higher tonality takes the second verse to illustrate, “Another tanker’s hit the rocks, abandoned to spill out its guts, the sand is laced with sticky glops.” Becoming entirely focused on the forced ugliness that the narrator has to endure, they end the second verse describing, “shimmering moonlight sheen upon the waves and water clogged with oil, white gases steam up from the soil.”
But it can’t be all misery with Dead Kennedys, or maybe honestly it can. The group takes the 1982 release and pushes it down the throat until it is fully digested with a forced, but healthy serving of seconds.
Listen To Plastic Surgery Disasters Here!!! – Spotify/Amazon/iTunes
STREAMING // (Track) Peggy Gou – “I Go”
Listen Here – BandCamp
STREAMING // (Album) Liquids – “Life Is Pain Idiot”
Listen Here – BandCamp
Track List: When You Were Born (You Should’ve Died), Dont Wanna Get To Know You, All U Say, More Thana Friend, Werewolves, You’re Burning, Weak, Violent, Tryin’, Think Too Much, Strutter, You’re A Punk, Lemon Rice (Doomed To Live), Shitty Fucking DNA, Same Mistakes, Prison Food, Nobody Likes You, Night The Lights Went Out, Life Of Oi, Give Up, Defeat, Crutched, 11 AM, Bat Outta Hell, Zilch, Sick Shit, Bottomless Pit
STREAMING // (Video) Pink Siifu – “lng hair dnt care”
Listen/Watch Here – Youtube
Produced By: Ted Kamal
Directed By: Livingston Matthews + Noah Porter
Edited By: Noah Porter
Misc. Day – Cast Away
Much like the snow that hits in the sunken winters of December, the New Year’s Eve release date for PUZZLE’s 2016 project Laying In The Sand gives moments of awe and vibrance without ever leaving the frozen tundra.
Glimmering through the waves of light disguised as the production, Fletcher Shears who makes up one half of The Garden with his brother Wyatt orchestrates a new life to the self-run group PUZZLE. With Laying In The Sand, much of the undertones from The Garden are present but the jumps in changing the productive style are welcome additions as PUZZLE opens with “Pull ^ Ur Peers” that has a goofy merry-go-round-esque sample switch to caress the listener.
As the ride seems to ensnare the ears, the underlying 808 is a hard-knocking snap that instead of a foundation becomes a centerpiece. Fletcher Shears illustrates a smooth ride over the lyrical aspect of Laying In The Sand that conquers more than just the speakers.
Describing, “The mind is like a racing horse, you gotta let it rest. Pulling up your peers is necessary now and then.” Much of the breaks and true performative wavelength that PUZZLE rides on borders on the bedroom indie and the more illicit and lucid punk style with dashing percussive outlets and ensembles.
Tracks like “Dice” are essential to the PUZZLE discography and make Laying In The Sand this ambitious mix of synthesizing atmosphere and the reminiscent nature of a Nintendo 64 racing game with sunshine and waterfalls to the mind. Fitting the appeal of low-quality but highly on-brand design, “Dice” is cartoonish and bright, giving the lyrics to become a message of free will and expression.
Shears illustrates, “Dice, dice, dice, always rolling dice. Never know what’s coming in this life, life, life,” as production becomes increasingly layered. By the end of the track, the whirlwind of percussive rolls and fills that shift in pitch brings a smile ear-to-ear and traps the audience in the gaze of PUZZLE.
Less of a straightforward approach and more of a… well a puzzle in all honest. PUZZLE takes some strange but intriguing choices with some of the final pieces as “What She Might Say To Me,” leading into “Years,” and then finally closing Laying In The Sand with “Excelerate” are all drastically different animals.
“What She Might Say To Me” is similar in the way to “Dice” as it gives these cheerful tonalities and pushes Shears to be a projecting vocal narrator over intricate layers and walls of sound. The transition into “Years” which follows instead slows much of the action but not to a crawl, instead it is a two-step where the snares collide to become meteorites with subtle hints of electronic production as well.
Finally, “Excelerate” is a spring to the finish line as if it was the time attack mode to your favorite arcade game, PUZZLE closes out like a rocket and leaves nothing but metal and gasoline in the wake. The consistent bass punches snatch the ears and the other percussion matches to be an enthralling and frankly exhilarating piece of movement.
Although both Shears brothers seem to be the busiest twins on the planet, PUZZLE from Fletcher still finds a way to always rise again in the desire to be heard and revisited. Almost like an old friend, Laying In The Sand is warm but never makes the audience sweat too much from the motion.
Listen To Laying In The Sand Here!!! – BandCamp/Spotify
STREAMING // (Track) Half Waif – “Horse Racing”
Listen Here – BandCamp
THIS IS A LIST OF THE MOST RECENT STREAMS...
The complete list of all past streams can be accessed here as well
(Click Here)
SUNDAY SAMPLER // (Playlist) “08/01/2021″
(Album) The Alchemist – “Rapper’s Best Friend 6”
(Video) Pink Siifu – “Bussin’ (Cold)”
(Track) Roland Bocquet – “Paradia”
(Album) WOMACK DA OMEN – “BOOK OF THE DEAD”
(Video) Rome Streetz X Futurewave – “Bible Or The Rifle”
(Video) ZelooperZ – “Bash Bandicoon”
(Album) Little Angels – “Demo”
(Video) Kevin Abstract – “Slugger”
(Track) Mannveira – “Vítahringur”
(Album) Livid + Mutilatred – “Split”
(Album) Knxwledge. – “VGM.12”
The complete list of all past streams can be accessed here as well
(Click Here)