Death Grips - Exmilitary

Death Grips - Exmilitary

RELEASED

April 27, 2011

Third Worlds [Self-Release]

PERSONNEL

Andy "Flatlander" Morin - Producer, Synthetics

Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett - Lyrics, Vocals

Zach Hill - Drum Machines, Drums

TRACK LISTING

01 Beware (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

02 Guillotine (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

03 Spread Eagle Cross The Block (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

04 Lord Of The Game [Feat. Mexican Girl] (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

05 Takyon (Death Yon) (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

06 Cut Throat (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

07 Klink (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

08 Culture Shock (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

09 5D (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

10 Thru The Walls (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

11 Know For It (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

12 I Want It I Need It (Death Heated) (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

13 Blood Creepin (Andy "Flatlander" Morin / Stefan "MC Ride" Burnett / Zach Hill)

"Beware" contains a sample of "Up The Beach" by Jane's Addiction.
"Spread Eagle Cross The Block" contains samples of "Rumble" by Link Wray and "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)" by Beastie Boys.
"Lord Of The Game [Feat. Mexican Girl]" contains samples of "Fire" by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and "Brass Monkey" by Beastie Boys.
"Takyon (Death Yon)" contains samples of "Supertouch/Shitfit" by Bad Brains and "A Who Seh Me Dun" by Cutty Ranks.
"Klink" contains samples of "Rise Above" by Black Flag and "Liar, Liar" by The Castaways.
"Culture Shock" contains a sample of "The Supermen (Alternative)" by David Bowie.
"5D" contains a sample of "West End Girls" by Pet Shop Boys.
"Thru The Walls" contains a sample of "Gettin' High in the Morning" by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti.
"Known For It" contains a sample of "De Futura" by Magma.
"I Want It I Need It (Death Heated)" contains samples of "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine" by Pink Floyd.

REVIEW

Energy without insight is monotonous. Insight without humor is preachy. Humor without frustration is toothless. Frustration without humanity is destructive. And humanity without energy is defeatist. If an album operates with the purpose of being a big noisy fuck-shit-up machine, missing just one of those elements can leave you with an overbearing mess, where every speaker-rattling burst of noise or cathartically screamed hook turns you back instead of getting you all riled up. Sacramento punk-rap outfit Death Grips are known for starting frothing mosh pits with a style that seems in keeping with the hardcore-meets-hip-hop confluence that first ran through skate culture a few decades back. Exmilitary, their free mixtape, is a bludgeoning slab of hostility that plays like both sides of a circa-1987 Cro-Mags b/w Just-Ice home tape bleeding through each other.

Exmilitary avoids any of the flaws outlined above, but it's still a potentially alienating album: unnerving when you're not on its aggro wavelength, inviting when you are, and transfixing either way, thanks to the aggregate work of Death Grips' core. The raspy, deliberate MC Ride doesn't so much flow as bellow. Producer/videographer Flatlander and co-producer Info Warrior hit both sides of the audio-visual equation with overloaded noise (check the "Guillotine" video for starters). Additional vocalist Mexican Girl skulks in the background and spits venom for occasional effective emphasis. And Zach Hill, the Hella drummer-- recently heard on Marnie Stern's self-titled album-- provides some of the live percussion elements. But isolating each member's specific contributions seems like a good way to make an overwhelming sound seem flimsier than it really is.

That said, MC Ride might be the most upfront element. His tendency to go hard in the rawest way possible with doomsayer verses has slotted him in a strange no-man's land between Southern and avant-rap. His tangled, diabolical lyrics are wrapped up in lust, drug panic, metaphysical power-tripping, and political agitation, and he delivers them as if every syllable were an exclamation point. And while there's not a ton of nuance, there's a surprising versatility, as Ride's rhymes range from malevolent to anxious to smart-assed. Monolithic and harsh, his voice sounds powerful doubling up the beats to the point where it doesn't even seem like a problem when it's halfway buried in the mix.

The production does its damnedest to capture punk aggression for a hip-hop context without pushing things too far in either direction. Fuck-the-cops anthem "Klink" invokes Black Flag's "Rise Above", the opening scream from Bad Brains' "Supertouch/Shitfit" punctuates "Takyon (Death Yon)", and the beat to "Spread Eagle Cross the Block" is built sturdily around Link Wray's "Rumble". On sex-maniac anthem "I Want It I Need It (Death Heated)", a devastating hijack of Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" perfectly conjures up this music's intersection of choppy, riff-heavy beat assault and psychedelic sprawl. Juke-inflected bangers like "Thru the Walls" and "Blood Creepin" blur Exmilitary's stylistic lines, and that's good-- it means not having to worry about scene purity or crossover potential, and focusing instead on just how much ferocity you can take.

Nate Patrin

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15583-exmilitary/

DOWNLOAD

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