With the new Swordplay coming out tomorrow (9/12!) and promising to be one of the many great indie rap albums of 2019 (dropping on the seriously ill Dora Dorovich on digital and CD and on everything else at the also amazing Audio Recon), I was wondering what I could possibly review today when this caught my attention.
For those who don't know already, Thorts is an alternative hip hop artist hailing from Bunbury Australia, a rapper since the mid 90's. He's worked with a lot of musicians crushing it in the Fake Four type scene such as Ceschi, Tommy V, Zoën, A. Hymnz, Aamir of Escape Artists and Variex, and has a similar take on the art of rap music. His songs are honest, introspective, catchy and always well produced going back to the early aughts. His EP with best friend and producer Aetcix as Field Trip was a surprise hit with me, and the 4 track EP the duo put out under their own names this year was similarly dope. He's also married to the talented Kady Starling (fka Kadyelle, you may have heard her on the Behind Bars Pt. 2 mixtape Ceschi put out while unjustly imprisoned) and the split EP they put out late last year was also very dope.
All that goes to show that Thorts is a dedicated hip hop artist completely immersed in the lifestyle, and as he alludes to in his music he takes his art seriously. He describes his new EP Chrysalis as being a window into a very dark time for him, and as I'm always honored to be given honesty in the form of music I was looking forward to hearing what he had to say.
The album begins with the title track, a song about changing in pain and breaking through, being reborn. The beat is almost reminiscent of early Atmosphere, and that said while the content is very dark, the song itself sounds almost upbeat and reminds the listener that there is something beyond this"self made universe" (the metaphoric Chrysalis of suffering). With "M.A.L.A.Y.A", a song about Thorts's late father, the content and the beat take a much darker turn and Thorts muses on death and how we are never ready to lose the ones we love the most. "Charcoal Grey" features the aforementioned producer Aetcix on raps and is a more hard hitting meditation on pain, with an eerie beat that is probably the EPs darkest moment. However the standout track is "Painting", which features Swordplay contributing his amazing vocal abilities to a waltz influenced melodic piece, also on mental suffering.
So the album is indeed very dark, although each of the tracks is dark in a bit of a different way, and the whole offering is only 4 tracks deep so it never gets tedious or too emo to tolerate. It is also apparent that the emotion is honest which isn't always the case with the darker indie rap. It seems like some artists realized they could reach a very open demographic with songs about sadness and pain, and this is very different. Thorts is speaking from experience, directly from the heart.
Overall it isn't my favorite release of his, I enjoyed Come What May (the Thorts side of the split EP I mention above) a bit more, although that isn't really due to the quality of any of the individual tracks. I think Chrysalis just never really comes into itself as cohesive work. It's hard to explain, but it feels a bit more like a piece of an LP versus a whole EP. It was over before it began and felt like it should have been longer. It is absolutely a solid few songs however, and shows artistic growth and a willingness to experiment and that makes all the difference to me.
Get Chrysalis here from Thorts' Bandcamp as a pay what you want download, or consider donating a bit to the cause. It can't hurt! Also definitely check out his other albums, especially the split with Kady Starling. It's a beautiful piece of work.
Thanks and see you Friday!
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