Some of you may be familiar with a magical month of the year known to English speakers as December. It's pretty great for a lot of reasons, secular and otherwise, but it's particularly great because it's the four weeks of the year that Fake Four releases an album every Friday in a celebration of indie music known as Freecember. On those days we get music both from established members of the collective but also, in my opinion often even more notable, by folks we might never have known about otherwise.
This is relevant for today because two artists I personally learned about from their contributions to Freecember, Ersatz Splynter and Oscar Goldman (check those albums out here and here, oh and also here, and if you don't have them yet don't worry, we still love you and the rest of us will wait patiently while you catch up... by the way, forget the free EP version of Prevoid, the full length is the way to go. Only 4 more left so don't sleep.) where was I, damn parentheses, yeah, these two are putting out an EP as the duo Goro 3:16, and UGF got the chance to give it a listen and review it for you so you can be properly stoked for it. Coming out May 1st, there's a lot to love about this album and it couldn't have been born at a better time, rest assured that there's something to look forward to in this time of uncertainty.
Hailing from the arid yet fertile dead center of California, both these emcees were well established local acts before their collaboration was born. Ersatz has a number of albums under his belt, including work with his crew Roach Collection and a production career as well as a well earned reputation for rapping his ass off. His speed and delivery are impressive, but do not overshadow a sense of humor and willingness to crash through genre boundaries and enjoy himself infectiously while doing it. Oscar Goldman has put out a number of albums with producers such as Just a Koncept and Casey Chisholm, and it's evident that his small stature hides a metric ton of heart and a rare willingness to delve deep and express himself. Prevoid in particular really endeared me to his work, Casey Chisholm's melancholy production helped to craft moments of absolute beauty and not only could I truly identify, I found myself really rooting for Oscar to become more well known and realize his dreams. All that goes to show I have a fondness for these two that predates Goro 3:16. While that could have influenced how I felt about this pocket sized EP, I really think it's impossible not to at least enjoy what these two are offering us.
Goro 3:16 consist of four tracks produced by Casey Chisholm, who proves once again that, like the coincidentally named German producer Oskar Ohlson (he produced a number of David Ramos' best songs) who's style is in some ways comparable, there is absolutely no instrument or genre that cannot be used to create great hip hop. From the harmonica driven self titled opener to the true piano chords of "Home", his production remains fresh and interesting. Casey's work really sets the tone of the EP, an ever present balance between joy and sadness, childhood and adulthood, hope and despair. I believe we'll be hearing a lot more from him in the coming years, as his music has the emotional depth of a great indie film score. It speaks for itself in many ways and would bolster the folk rap styles of a number of well known acts. Hint hint...
From a lyrical standpoint there is really no way in which Oscar and Splynter fail to deliver as a duo. Ertsatz's (Ersatz'?) high energy rapid fire raps still manage to seamlessly give way to Oscar's laid back and intelligent poetry, all the while crafting catchy and relatable songs. From the politics laced state of the album "Goro 3:16" to the two tracks in between that detail the life of the touring indie rapper, to the ending "Pair of Dice" that really just sums up the things in life that make them happy, this little album is a slice of life from the duo, and the enjoyment they find in creating music is evident with every moment.
I will say the tracks "Van Gogh" and "Home" are especially bittersweet within the context of this pandemic. The message is that touring is a struggle but they love doing it and are willing to suffer through what they have to in order to continue. It's heartbreaking that all of that has been put on hold. Hopefully soon enough they'll be gassing up the van and ready to gogh, but for now I did get to catch both of them during the Fake Fourantine festival and while there were some fairly major audio issues during Ersatz's set, and my washing machine chose those hours to completely crap out which prevented me from seeing more than bits and pieces of the rest, it was certainly better than nothing.
Here's the part in my reviews where I usually complain about the length of albums, as basically if I don't like something I don't review it, so I have to find some way to be constructively critical and that's often a good one. However in this case I really don't feel like it's a problem. Like another great short offering from this year, TXTMS, there's something perfect about the length of this album. In it's brevity there's beauty, and if any one of the tracks lacked heart or depth it would suffer for it, but as it is it's like a really nice dream, finite and meant to be appreciated for it. I do have to say I hope these guys continue to work together. Oscar mentioned an album with production by Splynter coming out later this year, but I really would love to hear what a full length Goro 3:16 would sound like. And finally let's all keep our fingers crossed that there'll be a stage with their name on it in the near future.
So even I'm getting tired of hearing from me, we do have access to the first video for "Van Gogh", and it's a great indication of what you've got to look forward to. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading, really excited for this one and for the future of both of these guys!
Get Goro 3:16 here on May 1st, and for now if you haven't already, go ahead and check out Oscar's own Bandcamp here. There's a couple truly great things to be found on it.
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