New Music: Happy Tooth - Done Suffering

 

 

So I told my dude Tooth that if I did any reviews in the next few weeks I'd give this a shout out. Anyone following UGF knows I've done my best to support the career of this guy and his often companion Dug after hearing their amazing live band EP All in Your Head. Their whimsical / introspective songs consistently hit home for me and I really feel like both of them are basically the kind of people who read this blog and listen to our music, so let's do what we can to support their dreams.

Coming October 8th, we have Happy Tooth's newest album Done Suffering. Basically Happy Tooth has decided that while suffering often produces great art, great art does not require suffering. There's no reason our favorite artists have to experience pain, and emotionally juice themselves into oblivion by age 27. That's essentially the message I get from this. He wants this art to be a good experience for everyone including the artist, and hopes that we can still enjoy what he produces when he's basically doing 'not bad'.

Common themes for a Happy Tooth record of course pop up here as well: the indie rap scene ("Canceled", boom...), day jobs / finances and mental health are of course present and discussed with the same cynical yet heartfelt poetry, but we also hear a bit about getting old. Turning 35 for me was a big eye opener and a bit of a downer and it seems as if he's going through the same thing. It's a universal experience, and discussing it the way he does does even more to bring his music down to the level of the listener, something he really excels at. I guess I'm trying to say it feels like a frank conversation with the guy, unpretentious and honest. Very refreshing.

One thing I wanted to mention, I found the production, entirely handled by Fisk, a bit challenging. I told Happy Tooth that I had preferred his work with Bum Theory or his previous album The Laughter's Rehearsed. It was this discussion that really prompted me to post this, because as I suspected this is the type of production that really requires you to listen carefully, preferably with headphones. In places it's more dependent on rhythm than melody which makes the sound less accessible but actually really works when the listener focuses on the weird use of samples, hats and sidesticks / drum rolls etc. It's very quirky and unusual, and it DID grow on me.

Finally, we see indie vet and genius Ecid dropping a verse, as well as Claud Six fka Lucas Dix and very exciting, Ryan Liptak aka Mild Child one of the humongous talents behind Happy Tooth & Dug gives us some vocal magic and I believe instrumental production as well?

 

All in all this is a good album, well worth your time and few dollars. On October 8th I hope you will consider clicking here and buying it on the format of your desire. In the meantime you can hear what he's working with as a few singles have been dropped in anticipation.

 

Until next week!

SubMerge - Anthropomerge (2012)

 

 

Real quick write-up this time. As far as I can tell this isn't available anymore. SubMerge is Wormhole, Qreus and 3.14, shamanistic hip hop with dark overtones and sinister lyrics. Nice piece of Hawaiian hip hop culture. Enjoy!

 

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Nomar Slevik - The Official Bootleg Pt. II (2004)

 

 

Some day I'll get back to promo / review posts. But for now it's just easier to hook you guys up with free music!

Today we got some old old from New Englander ghost chasing rapper Nomar Slevik. With a deep resonant voice, unique production style and a totally original brand of creepy sing-rapping Nomar Slevik is a pioneer in the New England indie rap scene exemplified by folks like JD Walker, Brzowski, Bread and yes even Sole.

In the Field Where I Died is a great one to start with if you don't know him, while this is exactly what the name and cover suggest which is a loose hodgepodge of tracks not found elsewhere, very lo-fi and definitely not all amazing. Nomar Slevik is actually someone I think of promptly when I hear the term "hit or miss". To me a good Nomar Slevik track is fantastic, a not good one is basically a skit gone wrong. To be fair I think that tendency to bullseye or miss the target entirely is a hallmark of the experimental musician and means they're willing to take risks.

I just say all that to express that there's some great music on here so be patient with it, and definitely look into his other stuff if you haven't already. If nothing else it's original as hell.

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Oddjobs - Conflict & Compromise (1999)

 

 

One of the very first hip hop albums I fell in love with was Drums by Midwestern pioneers Oddjobs. I was staying in the Twin Cities area and was getting an education on indie rap by a friend I'd met there. He gave me a list of "essentials" full of basically anticon., Rhymesayers, 1200 Hobos, you get the idea. He was actually fairly closed minded and judgemental about the more radio friendly stuff (he actually didn't like Mind Over Matter by Zion I which was offensive) but I am grateful for some of the stuff he introduced me to, these guys being one of them.

Oddjobs music is beautiful. It is dark, it is fun, it is funny, it is intricate but simple in a bleak and hardhitting way. It's all about contradictions I guess. Conflict and compromise. Wow this got poetic.

Anyway this album is great. If I remember right the rhymes are on point, the production is simple but effective, and the overall skill level is doubly impressive when one remembers these folks were in their teens when this was made.

All of them went on to do great things. This album is an essential for any fans of the Midwest sound. Enjoy it!

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Zucchini Drive - Goodbye Television Payback (2008)

 

 

You already know my stance on Stacs of Stamina. Dope. You can probably guess if I haven't outright expressed my stance on Cavemen Speak. Dope. I'll tell you my stance on the border crossing hybrid birthed by the two known as The World After 4/02. Dope. So can you guess my stance on Zucchini Drive?

Well I wish they rapped. I said it. I'm sorry. They have that unique combination of voices that makes for a very unique and very enjoyable rap collabo, a la Psycho Realm or Swollen Members and the work they did as The World After..., Vikings & Waffles was an instant classic and one of the best hip hop albums to come out of Europe in my humble opinion.

So I don't dislike Zucchini Drive. They're formidable producers, and interesting songwriters. They have an energy and vision that makes it fun to hear anything they've done, and I will always collect anything Marcus or Tom does as a rule.

Anyway enough complaining. Zucchini Drive's second full length album Goodyear Television Playhouse is that happy medium where they still considered themselves rappers first and europop singing sensations second. It's got some of them doing their best to hit the notes as they flow but for the most part it's dope rhythmic wordplay and fun songwriting. The lead single "Radical Days" with the one and only Radical Face is a virtually perfect song, which balances a sunny exterior with some darker imagery in a very interesting way.

Goodbye Television Payback is a remix album of that album they did, which has work from folks like Kaeoflux, Nomad, Thavius Beck, The Skyrider Band, Scott da Ros, dDamage etc.

It's pretty cool, and pretty hard to find as far as I know. So enjoy it!

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Oh yeah I haven't checked how many people bothered to follow that link last week. If you did aren't you glad? Probably the rarest thing we've ever posted I believe. Scoop it up asap because I'm killing the link this weekend! I need to keep that one in reserve in case I run out of ideas...