Music Reviews

The best boyband since One Direction is back, better then ever – if you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, BROCKHAMPTON is an universally aclaimed hip hop collective from Texas that has made their fame of off the currently-sitting-at-legendary-status „SATURATION mixtapes“. Ever since the unfortunate departure of the past member of the band Ameer Vann BROCKHAMPTON were trying their best to find their voice again, with the harsh and abrasive sounds of „iridescence“ or with the more intimate and delicate sounds of „GINGER“. Both these records showcased a very different approach for BROCKHAMPTON and now after a 2 year hiatus, I can safely say that they menaged to strike the perfect balance between these two.

The album kicks off with the raging banger that is „BUZZCUTTER“ featuring the man himself Danny Brown, which honestly speaks for itself – the song just speaks for itself. The follow-up „CHAIN ON“ is a song we did get a slight taste of previously, but now in the context of the album, it sounds much more complete – the sound is heavy, JPEGMAFIA does his thing and even though the beat might get a little tiring after three minutes of just that, I think what really sells this track is the performances – everyone on here just absolutely kills their part. Now the track „COUNT ON ME“ is probably my least favorite cut here – doesn’t mean it’s bad or anything, it’s just that comparing this to the rest of the album, it has the weakest performance out of any song on here – the whistle driven beat sounds intresting at first, but I just feel like they don’t do much with it, after a while it just kind of gets in the background – the vocal melodies are a nice touch, though really nothing extraordinary, just an okay tune. Now from here thing get a little bit more… All over the place. The next song „BANKROLL“ is another banger featuring ASAP Rocky and ASAP Ferg, whose both contribrutions to the song are undeniable – the beat is very mellow whichin a weird way compliments the more agressive delivery on this song. Now „THE LIGHT“ is easily the biggest emotional gutpunch out of anything here – for once the instrumentation itself is just heavy, dark, guittar-driven and it just absolutely slaps, the beat is just nasty – but thst itself doesn’t make this song good, what really sells this one are the lyrics and they are… Off the chains if you will. Joba talks about his expirience with his father’s suicide in a really open and brutal way, it’s really just too much. The song „WINDOWS“ being the longest song on here in 6 minutes actually managed to keep my attention throughout the whole thing (mainly because it’s placed right after THE LIGHT, but that’s besides the point) and once again, it’s a killer track – from here on though, the song start to branch out into more experimental territory. The song „TAKE YOU ON“ is just this earhug of a song, just 4 minutes of pure musical bliss – it’s really sweet, it’s dancable, it’s groovy and it has Charlie Wilson on it, really the whole package. „OLD NEWS“ follows a similar formula, except this time it goes into more hip/hop driven direction, not much to say about this one to be honest, it works just fine. „WHAT’S THE OCCSASION?“ however is a grand rock-driven tune with just and amazing last chorus where all the instruments just go absolutely nuts, it’s super catchy, super anthemic, one could even say larger than life, definetly one of my favorites here. „WHEN I BALL“ comes again with this more hip-hop sound majority of this album is going for, but this time it’s more light-hearted – there are string that go throughout the whole song, little piano passages that add a nice flavour to the track, it’s just really easy-going, down to earth and fun to listen. Now the next track „DON’T SHOOT UP THE PARTY“ is only one of those things and that is fun as hell to listen to – this song is an absolute banger, not only on this album, but one of the best ones the group has ever put together. Everything about this song just works, from the slow yet intense build up to the explosion into that west-coast beat that just absolutely slays to the dark yet again dancable bridge towards the end of the track – everyone here does their thing and they even get space for the instrumentation itself to shine, it just through and through works. Now the ending of this album is rather depressing, you have the minimal yet absolutely gorgeous interlude „DEAR LORD“ where all the band members just pray for Joba’s father it’s a really powerfull moment which lead beautifully into the last and final track „THE LIGHT PT. II“ and to be honest, the title kind of says it all – this is Joba saying goodbye to his father in the most heart-wrenching yet powerful way possible, I couldn’t imagine a world where this isn’t the closing track. The instrumenation surrounding it also is just so somber, so vivid, so just gentle and sweet, it’s enough to make full grown man cry.

So yeah, this has been the latest installment in BROCKHAMPTON’s discogrpahy, pretty neat one at that. Honestly I think this is the group just perfecting the blend of different sound they were attempting for the past few years and if there is one word I would describe this album with, it’s maturity, they’ve really come a long way and I can’t wait to see where they go next.

Strong 8/10

First of all, that was one hell of a title to write down, but I can gladly report that the music really fricking showed up for it. The legendary post-rock outfit are back better then ever and after a 4 year hiatus decides to drop a new full length LP with a brand new set of skull-crushing music and trust me when I say, that I’ll gladly have my skull crushed if this is what it would sounds like.

Now one thing you have to understand about Godspeed You! is that they make albums as one monumental larger-then-life expirience of a track, usually diving the tracklisting into four major segments. Now this album gives a little spin on this with the tracklisting still having four segments, but the first and the third one having the majority of the songs on here and the second and the final one being just singular songs, so expect me not to go that much in depth on those. But anyway, let’s start with the first bunch of tracks, shall we? If the first segment manages to prove something to me, it’s that they still fricking got it – I’ve been pretty mixed on the last few efforts in the band’s catalog, so hearing something like this again really reminded me why I love the band’s music so much in the first place. Essenitally the first segment consist of four major tracks each leading into the other and building on intensity until the inevitable explosion in the final leg – the musical pallete is as tasteful as ever, the instrumentals sound fresh, they sound dirty yet heavenly, they build like a giant wall of noise ready to swallow you and after the they fade in the second to last track, the last track is there to comfort you with there being no instruments, just the sounds of the birds singing, before the second segment kicks in. Now the second segment is purely just one song that focuses on more the atmospheric side of things, after the pure musical equivalent of torture that is the first segment. But even though it’s not as grand nor as explosive as the first segment, it still remains one of my favorite segments here. The distant marching drums with the dusty and atmospheric strings just add so much to the track, it really prepares you for what’s to come next. The third segment is something else, that really is the full package you came to love from the band over the years, the two songs alone are enough to make a full-grown man cry, truly the definition of hope. I was genuinely holding tears back by the end of it, the unease and despair that follows you throughout the first song that evolves into this beam of hope is just magical. It uses already familiar sounds and instruments to create something beautiful and at the end of the day that’s what I love the most about the band’s music – turning despair into hope and this segment is the embodiment of that. The final segment or song, however you wanna look at it, serves as a nice conclusion to the album, being a slow-burn fade out with noisy instrumentation wrapped in an orchestral accompaniment. After a few minutes of that the song, again, end on a hopeful orchestral note and the album ends.

Sometimes, an album just doesn’t need words to portray a feeling or even many complex emotions – sometimes the instrumentation speaks louder then words and this is definetly one of those instances. Because of that there really isn’t a way for me to explain with words the true musicalship this album achieves, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, this album really is larger then life, definetly one of the band’s greater accomplishments.

Strong 8/10

So I’m gonna keep this sweet and short, sort of like the EP itself. This little project from the phenomenon known as ECCO2K is definetly his most abstract and adventurous yet. Instead of his usual ambient production, ECCO2K uses more abrasive approach to things here with the usage of electric guitars, walls of insane synths and sounds and even dabbles into noise music on the last track here. It’s a really weird yet captivating mixture of sounds that definetly showcases ECCO2K’s, in my opinion, not fully realised potential.

The EP consists of 5 tracks, one weirder and more abstract then the other – first we have the opener PXE which is barely a song, just a mixture of random sounds and sound effects, a somewhat haunting mixture in that. The follow-up „In The Flesh“ is the most truly ECCO2K song on here, but even that uses some really tasteful electric guitars and a really creative 8-bit beat, when it all clashes together in the last leg of the track, it really comes full circle. The song „Jalouse“ goes further down the rabbit hole with more accoustic approach to things with noise freak outs placed throughout the track. „NO***’s Song“ is indeed a song, or at least I think it is – by this point in the album I forgot what actual music sounds like. Still, the song showcases more of the same insanity the first track presented with more rhyme and reason to it this time around. The closer „Big Air“, which is also the longest song on here (that doesn’t say much, considering it’s still just 3 minutes long) is a harsh noisy ballad with some really smooth almost magical electronic keys in the background – it helps to distract you from the fact that the rest of the instrumentation sounds like a tortured vaccum cleaner. Still probably my favorite song on here, if you can even call it that.

So uh, I have no idea what have I just listened to and neither do you, so don’t even pretend like you do. Still I found this to be a very exciting and for lack of a better word intresting project, definetly check it out if you haven’t already, I’m really hyped up to see this new sound fully realised on a new project from ECCO2K.

Light 7/10

So yeah, the white cornball eminem clone NF is back with a brand new… Mixtape? I honestly have no clue why this is branded as a mixtape, considering it has the length of most full length LPs, but whatever. The only important question is, is the music here good? And well, that question has many answers.

For once the opener „CLOUDS“ (yes, this is one of the albums where every letter of every song is capital) is actually one of NF’s more fulfilling songs. The typical orchestral instrumentation really works here, complimenting the occasional cringy but still somewhat introspective lyrics. The follow-up „THAT’S A JOKE“ drops the bar a bit, with the really akward sound effects and fast rapping segment in the middle – I mean that at least sounds somewhat cool, but do you really expect me to pay attention to what he’s saying in the middle of that? NF is one of those „real rappers“ that just for the love of god can’t balance fast rapping with substance and it shows. Still, the song isn’t awful or anything, mostly just gets burried by the other like 4 songs that sound the EXACT same here, no big deal. One thing I’ll give NF on this album, he sounds really confident with his delivery – that makes some of the more unaberable lines, well, more berable. „JUST LIKE YOU“ has this really weird inflection on NF’s voice, sounds like a cheap Tyler Joseph rip-off and I’m also not really that crazy about the piano instrumentation on this one. NF also gets just absolutely burried, when the actual instrumentation kicks in. But once again, it’s not terrible, just a low point for me personally. „STORY“ is actually a nice change of pace and also probably the best song on this thing, kind of by a landslide. Like everything after this song just feels so stale compared to this – this is really peak NF. The story he portrays in this one is really captivating and the additional sound effects really make you feel like you are right there with him – it’s kind of insane. „PRIDEFUL“ is just your typical trap beat, with some pianos and orchestral instrumentation to smoothen things up. The instrumental is actually quite delicate, but NF attempts to go full Drake here and it, uh, sort of falls flat on it’s face. Still this is one of the more down-to-earth songs here and I appriciate that if nothing else. The second single released prior to this album „LOST“ with Hopsin out of all people is actually pretty good and not beacause of NF, but Hopsin really carries this track, like REALLY. Just an enjoyable song overall, if you can get past how melodramatic it all sounds. „LAYERS“ is also a low point for me – NF sounds really hungry here, but unfortunately that’s to his disantavantage on this one. The only thing saving this one is genuinely the beat switch transitioning in the second half, but there still isn’t anything ground-breaking about it, it’s just sort of okay. „DRIFITING“ is the emotional anthem of this album – NF again tries to go more melodical here and it actually kind of pans out for him. Once you get past the corniness of it all, it’s not even half as bad as it could be, especially the short freak out by the end of the song, it really comes full circle. One thing I’ll give NF credit for is that he really cares about these songs – even though it’s just a mixtape, it’s a mixtape of high quality, at least prouction-wise. „TRUST“ featuring Tech N9ne just exists. It’s not terrible, but just waay too melodramatical for me, especially by this point in the album, it’s just too much. The closer „PAID MY DUES“ also currently probably the biggest song on this album is alright – could’ve been better, but definetly could’ve been much worse. The flavoured trap beat actually reallz works in this context and the instrumentation surrounding it compliments it quite well. There is also the weird CLOUDS edit as the actual closer to this thing, which is literally the same song, just shorten up a bit, so me talking about it would be just repeating myself.

I haven’t been this split on an album in a while, I’ll tell you that much – the good songs here are usually really good, but the others are just sort of there to fill out space. The whole thing is just packed with high-class intricate production, that NF usually undersells. Still this is probably one of NF’s better releases, the highlights on this one are really high.

Strong 5/10