The Playlist of Life --- Trollheart's resurrected Journal

The Batlord · 04-04-2017, 08:54 PM

God bless 'Murica.

Trollheart · 04-05-2017, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Isn't it amazing that even at the age of 76, Trollheart's vocabulary is still growing?

Quiet, Sergeant Steaklung.

The Identity Matrix · 04-05-2017, 12:38 PM

In my opinion Money Store is there best, with the Powers that B being a close second. I did enjoy Bottomless Pit, but a little less overall. I'm excited to see your thoughts.

Trollheart · 04-05-2017, 12:50 PM

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 “Fuck 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:

Trollheart · 04-07-2017, 03:05 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:

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard · 04-07-2017, 03:13 PM

didn't see that coming tbh. definitely their most underrated release though, really good album. i think i'm most excited to hear your thoughts on TPTB. will be surprised if you can make it through NotM.

**Frownland** · 04-07-2017, 03:19 PM

Outside of Hacker TMS is mad overrated. I feel like No Love Deep Web set itself up to be panned by people who were following them because it is much less ambitious (even as someone who isn't a big fan of TMS, I would definitely call it that), had an album cover that stole all of the attention, and a lot of these /mu/ poser fans wouldn't know a good album if it smacked them...in the...in the...ears I guess?

No Love Deep Web definitely does not get the love that it deserves (self-fulfilling prophecy of an album title?).

Trollheart · 04-07-2017, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qwertyy

didn't see that coming tbh. definitely their most underrated release though, really good album. i think i'm most excited to hear your thoughts on TPTB. will be surprised if you can make it through NotM.

What's NotM? I see Government Plates, Fashion Week and The Powers That B. Are there more? I'm working off six altogether, five albums and one mixtape, no?

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard · 04-07-2017, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

What's NotM? I see Government Plates, Fashion Week and The Powers That B. Are there more? I'm working off six altogether, five albums and one mixtape, no?

NotM is the first half of The Powers That B, Jenny Death is the 2nd half. double album.

**Frownland** · 04-07-2017, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

What's NotM? I see Government Plates, Fashion Week and The Powers That B. Are there more? I'm working off six altogether, five albums and one mixtape, no?

The Powers That B was released as two different albums at different times. Part one was Niggas on the Moon and Part Two Jenny Death.

04-05-2017, 12:50 PM	#3284 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	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 “Fuck 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: __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

04-07-2017, 03:05 PM	#3285 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,994	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

04-07-2017, 03:19 PM	#3287 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	Outside of Hacker TMS is mad overrated. I feel like No Love Deep Web set itself up to be panned by people who were following them because it is much less ambitious (even as someone who isn't a big fan of TMS, I would definitely call it that), had an album cover that stole all of the attention, and a lot of these /mu/ poser fans wouldn't know a good album if it smacked them...in the...in the...ears I guess? No Love Deep Web definitely does not get the love that it deserves (self-fulfilling prophecy of an album title?). __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x