🐣 LIL PEEP — BENZ TRUCK (ГЕЛИК)

The menace of the crunching bass and the downtrodden guitar, the slapdash strumming leading into a graveyard of sound that looms like something poised to pounce but never does—it's that ever-present threat of sound, melancholy on the edge of negative action, which gives 'Benz Truck (гелик)' its brooding atmosphere, a gothic gloom that is charged with potential energy yet which seems to shrink and wallow in grief. It does both. Producer smokeasac attaches a disjointed drum machine the dirge, thin gasping snares crack whilst kicks gloop and thud, subtle hi-hats ticking slow and sometimes tripling up like origami assault rifles takata-takata-takata just adding to the hype of the track, the electricity of it that you'd swear didn't exist here if it weren't as palpable and downright tangible as it is.

Slurring mumbling darkly with downcast confidence is Lil Peep, whose laid-back rap flows slow like spilled apple sauce, delivered with laissez-faire aplomb and a mellow fierceness. He casually delineates his situation whereby he has obtained money and success, enough for "iced out teeth on an iced out whip / with the limousine tints, you can suck my dick." He goes on to pre-empt accusations of sell-out that seem to come with the attainment of fame – "who you wanna hate now? pretty soon you gonna hate me" – as well as boldly stating: "all the money that I make now / I'll never let it change me." His tone, something like a drugged Jesse Lacey would sing over the top of something Brand New might play if they injected beats into their hard emo sound, is soaked with reverb, and conjures a persona at once calm and collected, less emo crying and commiserations, more stoic control of life.

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• 🔔 The track is taken from Lil Peep's album Come Over When You're Sober, set to drop at some point soon I guess. You can purchase, stream and/or download 'Benz Truck (гелик)' via this lil link here.
• 🔔 The Russian word гелик in the title refers to the exact type of Benz truck he's talking about: G-Class—the word, read as something like "gelik" in English, and let's assume it's a slang term, throws up images of black boxy cars on Google.
• 🔔 The video for the track was directed by Get Mezzy (also editor), SUS BOY, and Wiggy. It was animated by Chadwickmak and Connor Moy.

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☟ smokeasac Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram

☟ Lil Peep Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia

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🐣 BLACK FLY — SIGN 2

In an instant it's a realisation that the simple thump of the beat, thick behind the creeping electronics of it all, gives 'Sign 2' a robust uncrackable foundation. This beat ballast bumps below steadily allowing the real rhythm of the track to be in the colliding melody of the synth, sharp yet muted like a dull kitchen knife; here is the hook, in the syncopation of these notes, the coherence in their uncomplicated pattern, transferable with ease from ears to fidgeting feet. Like the constant of big desolate landscapes depicted in the video for the track, directed by Black Fly himself and in which the viewer sees him dancing, so too in the actual music do the electronics skip and skitter on a big digestible backdrop. The bass guitar also provides uncluttered rhythmic direction.

But alongside this sensibility for movement is mayhem, goth-flavoured in taste and with hints of noise. The vocals growl, almost purring, in the verse, hovering just above and below monotone in a stoic procession, rising emotively in the choruses. And post-chorus the electronics become more intense, quench the ears' thirst for more and more noise, gratify with white noise abrasive whirling in this new sonic gale and the gravity of it increased with zigzagging synth arpeggio fierce and piercing and trance-like. These saw-tooth endeavours add elemental difference to what is certainly not a simple electropop song—there's a keen desire to exhibit darkness, to mix shuffling shoes and introverted expressionism, a howling wall-of-noise you can move to.

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• 🔔 'Sign 2' is the Vermont, USA-based Black Fly's second single (the first is called 'I Don't Know'). Both of them were mixed by David Tolomei, who has also mixed tracks for Beach House and Future Islands.

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📠
☟ Black Fly Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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RITUALZ †‡† RHYTHMIC RELEASE

Whilst Ritualz (pictured right) seemed to begin life on the music scene as a herald of strange gothic dance music, distorted out of all recognition and even slightly frightening to even listen to, it seems these days, a few years after his inception (not like that convoluted film), to have calmed down, expressing a desire to move in more conventional patterns. That's how it seems. Or sounds.

There's a peculiar kind synth he uses that seems to not only carry distortion in its movement, but also a sense of buffeting winds and unreal hollowness; for this new song, 'Rhythmic Release', it's no different. Except his inner, perhaps more meditative side has come out and allowed him to turn up the chill on this track, especially in the little quiet bit after the halfway mark. Then we hear another kind of synth that Ritualz likes to use: very high pitched, screeching, trance-style notes. However the regular bass is something new, as are the more meaty-sounding drums. The general sense of dread is gradually slipping away from his songs. In the menacingly authoritative vocal sample he uses in this song is the most 'fear'.


We first saw this kind of change in his experimental veer from the path of gothic dance music, Outworld Music I, which I wrote about in May, and it marked an exciting potential. Perhaps he will break into more mainstream dance circles.

Who knows. All that I know is that this song, though not his strongest ever, has elements within that have the potential to make his music more attractive for a more amount of people.

But is that really what he wants?

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• Check Ritualz on SoundCloud for more music
• Ritualz official site
• Here's the Facebook page for Ritualz
• And Follow Ritualz on Twitter
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TEARIST - BREAK BONE, LIVE

This is TEARIST. Hailing from LA, they're in the same league as artists like HEALTH, Clipd Beaks, Pictureplane and Zola Jesus - some key players in the drag / noise / witch house (post-goth basically) resurgence that seems to be happening all around us; perhaps thanks to a dark and daring Lady Gaga leading the way, perhaps not.
Their dark, DIY sound throws back to early Joy Division, with William Stangeland Menchaca engineering weird and wonderful synth sounds whilst Yasmine Kittles sings fiercely half-yelling - a style utilised by Zola Jesus. You can also see from the video that her erratic, quirky nature of performing songs is reminiscent to that of Alice Glass of Crystal Castles; something that fits the sound of the music perfectly.
Their album 'Living: 2009-Present' was released mid-May this year received a mixed reception, thanks to the lo-fi quality of the recordings; the Los Angeles Times described them as "gothy electro-noise".

The video is TEARIST performing a song, 'Break Bone', live on radio (KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles) in July of last year.


TEARIST on Myspace
TEARIST on Bandcamp
TEARIST on Twitter

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