Album title: The Money Store
Artiste: Death Grips
Genre: Experimental hip-hop/Industrial hip-hop
Year: 2012
Label: Epic
Producer: Death Grips
Chronological position: First proper album, so essentially debut album
Notes:
Album chart position: 130 (US)
Singles:
Lineup: Same as before
This was the first time I heard about these guys, with everyone raving about the album. At the time I had no idea (and less inclination to find out) what sort of music it was even – thought it might be punk, given the album cover. Once I heard it was hip-hop though I lost whatever tiny fleeting interest I had in it and moved on. Time to move back.
Review begins
Rolling bongo-style drums then a quick rap, voice quite low and what sounds like electric guitar screeching followed by superfast keyboards (though the former is probably synth anyway), this goes under the title of “Get got”. Has an interesting melody to it I will admit, quite hypnotic. If it's a sample (which most of their music appears to be) I don't know what it is, as the Wiki page doesn't tell me, and I have no particular desire to go researching it. Sounds a bit like, um, ska punk is it? Don't know; sort of slightly faster reggae? Shrug. Much slower then is “The fever (aye aye)” with a building synth line and slow industrial percussion, while “Lost boys” has a kind of phasing effect going through most of it. Not so impressed so far with this as I was with
Exmilitary – there seems to be less music and it's more a stripped-down approach (which, given the cover, makes sense!
)
Very hollow drums sound and sort of broken-up samples/loops for “Blackjack” while “Hustle bones” has a repeated (I think) female vocal sampled, with powerful, driving drums (again, loops?) and it certainly hits hard. Given how little music is in this they manage to make it sound quite catchy. Not bad. Some sort of guitar sample on “I've seen footage”, kind of a Run-DMC feel to this, well I think there is. Shut up. Kind of like a bell ringing going through “Double helix”, very fast rap with again the sound of a female voice, I think, sampled and run at intervals through the song. Sounds like a bass piano mostly for “System blower”, then it definitely sounds like Depeche Mode or Gary Numan or something sampled for “The cage” and surely a sitar is involved in “Punk weight”, which rattles along nicely. Is there vocoder being used here,
a la Herbie on “I thought it was you”? Orchestral hits it sounds like now, and no rap as yet – oh there it is.
That leaves us with three. The delightful “Fu
ck that” has more rolling bongo-ish drums and a shouted angry rap, not really any music though, while there's a clear synth line running through “Bitch please” on a slow, grinding rhythm, and the album ends on “Hacker”, pretty catchy tune to be fair, like the repeating keyboard lines and the rap is pretty fine too.
Track listing and ratings
Get got
The fever (aye aye)
Lost boys
Blackjack
Hustle bones
I've seen footage
Double helix
System blower
The cage
Punk weight
Fuck that
Bitch please
Hacker
Afterword:
I was rather surprised when Qwertyy mentioned that
Exmilitary was their most accessible recording, but yeah, I can see it now. That had a lot more samples, music I could kind of listen to while admiring, or not, how the rap worked with it. This, not so much. Again, not something I would listen to for pleasure but not a huge dip in quality or that big a disappointment. Definitely prefer the mixtape though.
Rating: 