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Trollheart · 04-07-2017, 02:05 PM

Album title: No Love Deep Web
Artiste: Death Grips
Genre: Experimental hip-hop
Year: 2012
Label: Epic
Producer: Death Grips
Chronological position: Third album (including the mixtape, second if not)
Notes:
Album chart position: n/a
Singles:

Originally released with a very sexually explicit album cover (can't get much more explicit than having one of the band's dicks on the album sleeve, can ya?) this album naturally courted controversy, and as we all know, controversy is oxygen to a band, which makes it maybe odd that this didn't dent the US charts, so far as I can see. Well, not the Billboard Hot 100 anyway. Be that as it may, it did very well in the US Heatseeker Albums Chart (whatever that is), rising (sorry) to number 7, but only managing the 22nd spot on the US Rap Albums Chart.

Review begins

Perhaps appropriately, given the album sleeve, there's a bouncy, springy upbeat bass keyboard and percussion to kick off “Come up and get me”and then a fast, almost breathless rap, lots of useage of the word “fuck” and a general feeling of someone being pretty pissed off about something. I know, I should read the lyrics but I really don't care that much. Slower then for “Lil boy” with bongo-ish drums and a more restrained lyric, whistling keyboard and a really nice bass line (sampled I guess but it's pretty good). I like this one a lot better; very catchy and has great rhythm. I can also understand the vocal better than I could in the opener, then the drumbeat at the beginning of “No love” is just like a heartbeat, like one of those ECG machines you see at hospitals, then a pretty rad melody pours over that and there's real power and energy – kind of dark energy? - to the song. It's quite long for a Death Grips song – over five minutes – but it doesn't seem overlong. I quite like it to be fair. “Black dice” kind of opens like a Prince song (are they sampling one of his? I don't know) with a sort of warped synthy line and what sounds like some pads, another slow powerful rap. Yeah, like this one too.

There seems to be two vocals going in “World of dogs” and one of them actually appears to be singing rather than rapping; well, as close as I've heard so far. Not sure if this happens as a matter of course in hip-hop, not having heard enough of it to make that determination, but it's a nice change. This has a real sense of anger and desperation about it, and the two vocals work exceptionally well. I like “Lock your doors” too, a real grind with a dark menace about it, and I think they're using two vocals again here? Yeah, and there's a female vocal, I guess sampled, in “Whammy” plus a sort of duet rap going on. Really good. “Hunger games” (don't know if it has anything to do with the movies/books) has a kind of rolling drumbeat and good samples, and again it's very catchy. I guess Zach Hill deserves credit here. There's what sounds like almost a heavy metal riff sampled for “Deep web” and a stuttering keyboard with a shouted, stentorian vocal and someone or something going “Woop!” Don't think it's Zoidberg. More bouncing drumbeats for “Stockton”, with maybe loops or some sort of almost elastic bassline anyway, rap's very good too, very effective. Are there two vocals? Certainly sounds like it.

There's a quite superb mad synth line to “Pop” - surely they're sampling some well know electronica tune or something here? It's so different to anything else on the album I think even if you were a DG fan and didn't know this you would not recognise it as them right away. Cool. “Bass rattle stars out the sky” (huh?) reminds me in certain areas of MARRS's big hit “Pump up the volume”, has a really nice rolling beat about it, and they've kept the longest track till last. Six minutes of “Artificial death in the West” opens with a chimy guitar then real disco-inspired pads and a low, dark rap with trancey touches perhaps. I actually love this, great closer. And I mean great.

Track listing and ratings

Come up and get me
Lil boy
No love
Black dice
World of dogs
Lock your doors
Whammy
Hunger games
Deep web
Stockton
Pop
Bass rattle stars out the sky
Artificial death in the West

Afterword:

I consider this a huge improvement on The Money Store, which I really didn't enjoy all that much, and left me kind of dreading going on. But this is really good. Maybe it's that TMS has little in the way of music samples, whereas this is full of them, or maybe I'm just getting more used to Death Grips, I don't know. But whatever the reason, and to my considerable surprise, I really enjoyed this album. A lot. When TMS came to an and I was happy to hit stop, this time around I felt like I wished there was more. That, my friends, is progress.

Rating:

04-07-2017, 02:05 PM	#3285 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Album title: No Love Deep Web Artiste: Death Grips Genre: Experimental hip-hop Year: 2012 Label: Epic Producer: Death Grips Chronological position: Third album (including the mixtape, second if not) Notes: Album chart position: n/a Singles: Originally released with a very sexually explicit album cover (can't get much more explicit than having one of the band's dicks on the album sleeve, can ya?) this album naturally courted controversy, and as we all know, controversy is oxygen to a band, which makes it maybe odd that this didn't dent the US charts, so far as I can see. Well, not the Billboard Hot 100 anyway. Be that as it may, it did very well in the US Heatseeker Albums Chart (whatever that is), rising (sorry) to number 7, but only managing the 22nd spot on the US Rap Albums Chart. Review begins Perhaps appropriately, given the album sleeve, there's a bouncy, springy upbeat bass keyboard and percussion to kick off “Come up and get me”and then a fast, almost breathless rap, lots of useage of the word “fuck” and a general feeling of someone being pretty pissed off about something. I know, I should read the lyrics but I really don't care that much. Slower then for “Lil boy” with bongo-ish drums and a more restrained lyric, whistling keyboard and a really nice bass line (sampled I guess but it's pretty good). I like this one a lot better; very catchy and has great rhythm. I can also understand the vocal better than I could in the opener, then the drumbeat at the beginning of “No love” is just like a heartbeat, like one of those ECG machines you see at hospitals, then a pretty rad melody pours over that and there's real power and energy – kind of dark energy? - to the song. It's quite long for a Death Grips song – over five minutes – but it doesn't seem overlong. I quite like it to be fair. “Black dice” kind of opens like a Prince song (are they sampling one of his? I don't know) with a sort of warped synthy line and what sounds like some pads, another slow powerful rap. Yeah, like this one too. There seems to be two vocals going in “World of dogs” and one of them actually appears to be singing rather than rapping; well, as close as I've heard so far. Not sure if this happens as a matter of course in hip-hop, not having heard enough of it to make that determination, but it's a nice change. This has a real sense of anger and desperation about it, and the two vocals work exceptionally well. I like “Lock your doors” too, a real grind with a dark menace about it, and I think they're using two vocals again here? Yeah, and there's a female vocal, I guess sampled, in “Whammy” plus a sort of duet rap going on. Really good. “Hunger games” (don't know if it has anything to do with the movies/books) has a kind of rolling drumbeat and good samples, and again it's very catchy. I guess Zach Hill deserves credit here. There's what sounds like almost a heavy metal riff sampled for “Deep web” and a stuttering keyboard with a shouted, stentorian vocal and someone or something going “Woop!” Don't think it's Zoidberg. More bouncing drumbeats for “Stockton”, with maybe loops or some sort of almost elastic bassline anyway, rap's very good too, very effective. Are there two vocals? Certainly sounds like it. There's a quite superb mad synth line to “Pop” - surely they're sampling some well know electronica tune or something here? It's so different to anything else on the album I think even if you were a DG fan and didn't know this you would not recognise it as them right away. Cool. “Bass rattle stars out the sky” (huh?) reminds me in certain areas of MARRS's big hit “Pump up the volume”, has a really nice rolling beat about it, and they've kept the longest track till last. Six minutes of “Artificial death in the West” opens with a chimy guitar then real disco-inspired pads and a low, dark rap with trancey touches perhaps. I actually love this, great closer. And I mean great. Track listing and ratings Come up and get me Lil boy No love Black dice World of dogs Lock your doors Whammy Hunger games Deep web Stockton Pop Bass rattle stars out the sky Artificial death in the West Afterword: I consider this a huge improvement on The Money Store, which I really didn't enjoy all that much, and left me kind of dreading going on. But this is really good. Maybe it's that TMS has little in the way of music samples, whereas this is full of them, or maybe I'm just getting more used to Death Grips, I don't know. But whatever the reason, and to my considerable surprise, I really enjoyed this album. A lot. When TMS came to an and I was happy to hit stop, this time around I felt like I wished there was more. That, my friends, is progress. Rating: __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018