Death Grips

3 of 5 is the default "this is not bad for what it is, but it's definitely not for me, idgi" score. it's like abstaining from passing judgment. 2 of 5 is a slam.

"i'm not picky what you call it"

haha a SLAM ooh

like i said i didn't see the star rating when i said what i said though

thank you ma'am

lol if two stars is a SLAM what is one star, as per drake and klaxons?

star ratings and scores are kind of not the point anyway but it seems fair for "some elements i really like but overall i'm not feeling this"

one star is for me to poop on

the drums/beats are less pronounced on this than on ex-military ... at least on first listen.

5) holy shit!
4) good shit
3) shit, i dunno
2) a bit shit
1) shit sandwich

enlightening music discussion

this is why they pay me the big bucks to post on ILX

it's definitely a rap album for ppl that know what Hella is

ouch

what? i mean it's kind of rap for underground rock peeps. which is fine w/me.

death grips is for the children

Sorta damning it with faint praise there. Then again, I was talking about this album favorably the other day and I heard myself compare dude's delivery to HoP-era Everlast.

Like don't love this album, but it's doing that thing where it sorta keeps beckoning me back to listen to it, which usually means I'll end up liking it a lot more about six months from now.

does this sound like a louder faster harder version of tricky circa pre-millennium tension because that's what some of djp's reference points seem to suggest

i always preferred the jazzier side of mc 900 ft jesus to the harder stuff

does this sound like a louder faster harder version of tricky circa pre-millennium tension because that's what some of djp's reference points seem to suggest

Yeah actually that's not far off

Except Tricky even at his most fucked up felt like he was able to actually ride a beat at some point and I'm not sure Death Grips dude can at all.

I'm a few songs into this and this feels like the clunkiest end of Def Jux style undie rap filtered through a lame post-dubstep prism. Lame lame lame lame lame.

Lame.

go back to england

I'm now trying to listen to it as rock music and it doesn't work that way either.

do you like minor threat?

idk, looking at this from a undie hip hop pov and expecting flow to ride beats and such is probably the wrong way. feels like more of a noise/hardcore thing to me.

I like Minor Threat a bit, but there's an obvious physicality to Minor Threat that I don't hear here. I find it difficult to feel rock energy without rock instrumentation, especially drums, but this record doesn't feel like it really has rap energy either, it feels awkwardly slumped between two stools as it is.

Maybe I'd like the punishing mixtape that Lex hates a bit more...

yeah if there's one thing this album of frenetic Hella dude drumming and an MC screaming every line is missing is energy

agree that it doesn't work terribly well in the way i typically expect from rap, and it definitely isn't rock & roll, but i like the sounds and propulsion and wall-crashing energy. it works just fine for what it is, even if that thing isn't 100% clear.

I can think of a number of words to describe Death Grips, but slumping (awkwardly or otherwise) is not one that generally comes to my mind. I do think that Money Store somehow manages the trick of being simultaneously odder (in that it sounds far less like something I could imagine a major label being into) and also more conventional sounding (if a certain sort of Wire magazine-y IDM thing that they have going on can be called conventional) than Ex-Military (which I absolutely loved.) It's still quite good though and I'm excited to hear the next record which is what supposed to come out in a couple of months?!?

it's not even just "riding" the beat from a technical pov that dude can't do, it's like he just goes hammer & tongs at the mindless yelling without even hearing the music around him - his voice bears almost no relation to it at all

I don't think that's true at all! Especially on this one, with the way Ride's vocals are cut up and manipulated to suit each beat,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNwiVYaa7tA&feature=youtu.be

yeah if there's one thing this album of frenetic Hella dude drumming and an MC screaming every line is missing is energy

I obviously was interested enough to put it on again today in the cold light of sobriety. I'm about halfway through now and it's definitely better when the pace picks up - otherwise I'd say it has force rather than energy, in the way that a bulldozer does. I'm really not a fan of the mid-paced halfstep lope that's employed most of the time, it seems to go against the grain of the urgency in the vocals.

'Hustle Bones' is definitely the best so far.

not having much of an idea how to listen to a record doesn't nec make yr opinion worthless, but if you bring nothing to a record don't act like it's the record's fault if you come away empty-handed

truth grenade

TRUTH BOMBS COMING OUT MY MOUTH

john calvert's review on quietus is p interesting tho I don't think I agree w/ it all. also he doesn't mention ggd

I can't stop listening to "Hacker," it's like some sort of post-revolution touchdown fuck-yeah anthem after the anarchic barrage of the previous run of 4-5 tracks. Just wish it was twice as long.

also he doesn't mention ggd

to his credit

This is growing on me

Through I still like ex military better

Though I think it's funny ppl are ganging up on mattdc for not liking this....tbh this new one didn't grab me at first and I think the more subtle textures and lower key vibe (relatively speaking) do show up his shortcomings as an mc

There's two things that are pretty constant in hip hop that Death Grips lacks. One, even with freaky stuff like Odd Future or Ghetto Boys, there's an implied community, or at least a crew that's got your back. Two, there's a generally a steady BPM. Waka Floka sorta just yells too, but it's steady. Ex Military fits in on http://grindcorekaraoke.com/ 'cause a lot of that stuff is lone kids with sequencers building up a barrage that sounds like a full band changing tempo ever few seconds. Death Grips is like rapping without hip hop. Maybe it's NuMetal!

I didn't think I was being particularly ganged up on (I've been at least attempting to enjoy it and do enjoy bits of it). But the idea that it's difficult to find the right way to listen to it is just weird, as if it were fucking Schoenberg or something. I think it's pretty clear what's being attempted here, I'm just not sure it's very successful at it.

I dunno why ppl itt are doing stupid backflips about what to call this since there's like no short tradition of like Beatnigs, Death Comet Crew, Dalek, Techno Animal, Kill The Vultures, k-the-i???, Sensational, Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs & half-the-Wordsound-roster dudes rapping or "rapping" over noise

xp - pretty sure the majority of schoenberg fans wldn't have much illuminating to offer either. there is no scale of difficulty which you can master and then unlock all music, there is no universal ear, or even a generalist one. 'clunky' & 'basic' are better deployed as compliments than thrown pejoratively.

more or less agree w/ upper mississippi about the record: enjoy the new things on the album & its still growing on me but not yet quite as fond of it as ex-mil & i'm looking fwd to the follow up more

feel like their live act/audience is revealing, it's like a hardcore show.

lol @ that list of artists in whineys post

i know it makes this sound like the least appealing thing ever

where's divine styler btw

i am filing this under "atari teenage riot" in my head

The Dälek guys should probably be hella (lol) pissed that this is getting as much attention as it is. Because as incredible as Death Grips is, those guys have been working harder and smarter at "quasi-industrial noise-rap" for a decade.

I don't even think they're getting a boost from the Hella connection (Hella was "hip" what, 10 years ago?). I think it's just the blogarchy "roll with the new" vibe. The last three Dälek records were just as good as anything Death Grips did and no one but Europeans and Isis fans are really riding for em in 2012

I have a lot more trouble getting through an entire Dalek album than a Death Grips one.