Well guys, as you know we at UGF do our best to cultivate positive relationships with the artists who's work we love. That's why we have stricter rules than some about what we post on Friday's, why our reviews are more posts about music we like than positive versus negative critiques and why took the time to give our shout outs to our favorite artists of the 10's. And I'm honored to announce that one of my personal favorite artists not just of the last decade but definitely of this new one as well, Brzowski was paying attention. So he offered UGF the chance to listen to his newest cassette The Subjugation of Bread (out 9/11/2020), and I of course was honored and excited to be given that chance.
There's the background. Here's a bit more. Entirely produced by C Money Burns, who's work with Brzo as Vinyl Cape, that alt rap-metal hybrid machine that will kick you in the balls if you call it nu-metal led to some of my favorite Brzo songs to date, The Subjugation of Bread is quite a bit different from what the duo has done before. C Money Burns has proven himself to be a multi-talented instrumentalist who can not only put together some seriously heavy metal tracks but also spacey and emotionally stirring melodies. His solo work as Elevator Hotels is very much worth a look if you're interested in music outside the hip hop genre, especially if you grew up listening to Depeche Mode or The Cure. His work here is in a way a summation of his skill set, a mixture of live instrumentation, sampling and his signature heavy percussion that evokes very effectively a world on the brink of total collapse.
Speaking about impending doom is par for the course with Brzowski. He's dark like American currency is green and blood is red (see what I did there?), he wouldn't be the musician he is without a depressive bent and a desire to express it. That however is a serious oversimplification of what his music has to offer. Rarely in the music scene have I had the good fortune to find a poet with his ability to speak coherently with such unusual vocabulary, and with such a solid disinterest in adhering to conventions. Take for example the mind bending alliteration found on "Red Lanterns" below:
"Subverting and exploiting the desires superstructure can't satisfy
A self-shot pic from the machinery, self-surveillance, spectacular spook chasing"
Nobody sounds like this, and make no mistake how much I appreciate his contributions for that reason alone.
On The Subjugation of Bread we find Brzo taking the plunge into serious protest rap. We've been seeing for a while his willingness to share his political views with the listener (most recently on the excellent "Tear the Facists Down", found on what may be my favorite of his albums, mixtape or not, Blooddrive Vol. 4). The Subjugation of Bread is a serious look at the state of the Western world and how capitalism has worked for us in practice. I agree with what he says here, it's hard not to if you live in the US and bother to follow current events, um... ever. His penchant for twisted and clever verbosity helps keep what is very solid political conversation well outside the realm of preachy, and I think manages to effectively make his point while at the same time keeping the experience fresh and entertaining, as music should be.
The combination of vocal samples and lyrical content, together with sophisticated instrumental work by Burns allow each of these songs a visual quality that makes them immersive and powerful. The included tactical manual also offers more insight into the duos thoughts, and overall depth to the message. I am not as articulate or educated as the man himself, so after asking him for a summary of the message behind The Subjugation of Bread and getting this response, I feel like the best thing I can do is step back and let him tell it to you:
"Willful ignorance is dangerous, self-education is essential, media
literacy needs to be ingrained (who OWNS your favorite
news/magazine/site/radio/video channel etc.).... Capitalism has been
pointed to as the only available avenue to deliver prosperous futures,
that are heretofore not arriving, for the vast majority of people living
in these systems. This is the Hauntological aspect of
Capitalist Realism. I understand the irony of selling anti-capitalist
music in a capitalist society, but have been overwhelmingly supported in
this project with C$Burns, which tells me a fair amount of people are
willing to pay-into this kind of artistic/philosophical exploration, if
not try to move these ideas into physical space after the fact. I'm
seeing a lot of pre-orders from new names that I don't recognize, and
this is an encouraging development.
In November
of 2019, C$ and I were having a humorous phone conversation, derisively
laughing at how often peers and pundits alike throw around terms like
"Communism", "Socialism", and "Anarchism" having no idea what they
actually denote as political systems. We went on to talk about how
irksome it is to have your average US citizen use the terms "the Left"
to mean "the US Democratic Party" (which is functionally Center-Right).
This was the genesis of the project: "Hey, let's make a project that
explains it to them!", and after another round of cackles, we decided
this was in fact precisely what we would set out to do. We of course are
addicted to information-based complexity, and so poetry, metaphor,
obscure references, and more than a few in-jokes are included in the
lyrics and the design of the book itself. We want the project to unfold
and become a richer experience beyond "music" after digging in beyond
the initial listen.
The purpose of including
the lyrics, images, and the "suggested reading list" was to offer a
richer understanding of the content by providing a map to triangulate
our position, much the way Media Literacy functions. One has to plot and
triangulate what art means by its historical/cultural context. This was
a rare occasion where the content and sentiment became more
relevant between the time the project was completed (February 2020) and
when it was released (9/11/2020)." - Brzowski
Very good. As I told him I remember reading one of his posts a few years ago, basically making the point that apathy is as destructive as active destruction. Viewing evil as too powerful to overcome is an excuse to be lazy and allow someone else to do the good work that you might've been called on to do yourself if you bothered to care enough. That resonated with me as at that time I was definitely feeling as though protesting, voting and organizing were unlikely to ever amount to anything real and therefore not really worth the effort. This was mostly a result of depression rather than a lack of concern for the state of things, but what I got from what he said was that it doesn't really matter, I was still allowing myself to be one less voice on the right side of things.
On fully listening to the album twice now, and doing my best to read the accompanying Tactical Manual (see what he says above if you're debating picking that up along with the music. It's essentially half the album you'll miss out on without it) on a computer which is difficult because of the format (I can't wait for my preorder package), I came out of it with this sentiment. Things like drugs, shiny possessions and so-called esteemable positions are what we use to survive in a world that basically lives off the suffering and humiliation of MOST of us. It's never been more obvious than it is now. Brzowski and Burns want us to stop accepting what should be unacceptable, and they're letting us know in a way that's dark, clever, funny in some places, melodic, sad and hard hitting. This album not only offers a half hour of dope hooks, crazy poetry and head-noddable instrumentalism, but it's a very handy way to get oneself excited about possible solutions. This album is fantastic and sorely needed in the world of today.
I just want to take one moment to thank Brzo for reaching out and giving me this opportunity. I can say for Trylemma and I it's seriously awesome to know the artists we love are seeing the stuff we post on this humble site. See ya'll Friday!
Do yourself a favor and pick up a physical (or I guess a download works too, maybe if you ask you can get a PDF of the book although good luck reading it on a computer) of Brzowski and C$ Burn's cassette The Subjugation of Bread here, dropping this Friday! You don't have to be a fringe Leftist to love it though, don't worry!
