New Music: Thorts & Haunted Days - Hanky Man

 

 

This is the one guys. Give me a second though to provide the context.

It's probably well known at this point that Australia's own Thorts is a friend of UGF. He's always happy to share his work with us and refers countless other folks over for promo posts as well, always great music and always great people. His credentials are solid as hell in the indie world as well, he's done songs with everyone from Fang Over Fist's master beatsmith Whatever Cecil to Staplemouth. Pretty much if you and I like even a little bit of the same music you already like Thorts, whether or not you know it.

My only real issue (although it's actually made reviewing much easier for the 60 hour work week dudes like myself) is the length of his releases. I at least like everything he puts out but I often find myself really wanting a nice meaty helping of his quirky / dark personality and excellent taste in production, he does tend to put out a lot of nice bite sized offerings but often not long enough to really fall in to. We last got that with 2020's Weightlifters with Smokey131 which was as refreshing and different as it was dope and dark. If you don't have it yet, give that one a listen here. We get it again on Hanky Man. This is indeed the one.

France's Haunted Days is a great producer as well, I don't want to leave out that fact. I knew this already from their work with Variex on the "Barbwire Necklace" remix with Witches Teat, but this album to me really showcased the beauty and complexity of their compositions. Rarely have I encountered a more "visual" producer. These beats evoke imagery both weird and stunning, and you need to experience that to really get the point I'm trying to make, so here's what they did to someone else's psyche:

So put them together and we have Hanky Man. Thort's old soul aesthetic, darkly comic viewpoint and willingness to be brutally honest (to the point of being a little gross, like on the title track but we forgive him because that shit was funny) pair perfectly with Haunted Days scratchy, dreamy and melodic soundscapes. This album is one of those rare treats where you're really sad when it ends. I don't have much else to say except that the guest roster is perfect, it doesn't rely to heavily on other talent but it makes great use of the cast it has (Nolto especially is as always phenomenal on "Dense", a sociopolitical tirade which is sadly more timely than ever).

Give this a try. I think if you want to get to know Thorts, grab a pair of headphones, your psychoactive of choice (or lack of one of choice), close your eyes and hit play. There's enough that's good here for any fan of hip hop to truly find something they love.

The whole thing drops March 4th, but preorder a cassette at El Gran E Records here (these guys are knocking it out of the park lately... And they've got a Noah23 album coming soon...) if you're outside Australia and get a digital copy here for those of you closer to Thort's home base (but no cassettes anymore...). Damn that wound up being a very complicated sentence. Whatever, I'm tired it's Monday night. Buy the album!

I gotta do it. I have to at least mention what's happening over in Europe. I wish I could do more but I just want to express solidarity with the Ukrainian people (I am one at least partly), express admiration for the way they've stood up and held on to their homeland and ask myself if I were in that situation if I could do what they have. It's a blessing that we rarely have to fight for the freedom we take for granted in the Western world. But too often I think it makes me forget just how precious it is, and how quickly it can be taken away by paranoid authoritarians and the people who think those dictators are wonderful geniuses.

New Music: D-FAZ - OneNationUnderDog

Welcome to another Wednesday at UGF as our first year in operation begins to wind down! I wanted to take the opportunity to help promote an artist who I have a tremendous amount of respect for, Brzowski, and the newest album OneNationUnderDog by his band D-FAZ (check out their official website for more information here). While this was originally slated to drop on 9/18, I never did get an official announcement that it could be downloaded in full. The entire thing is up and available though and I figured maybe others who had preordered it were wondering what the deal was, or had forgotten about it and hadn't had a chance to peep it out. So I thought I'd offer my two cents on the album as well as draw some attention to it a bit after the fact as it seems it might have flown in under the radar...

The original D-FAZ EP, Abandoning (get a download of that one here) was an interesting listen. Brzowski is growing to be a very versatile poet and emcee, and with his experimentation ranging from straight up rap to metal with his other band Vinyl Cape (with C Money Burns) and fusions of the two, he's also definitely pretty fearless. D-FAZ goes in a new direction for him, blending an electronic bass music sound provided by four French production wizards with his angst ridden activist lyricism to create something engaging and new.

OneNationUnderGod tells the tale of a dystopian future, where an authoritarian surveillance state punishes free thought and incentivizes compliance. Brzowski's lyrical narrative mostly follows this story, with commentary about war, capitalism and activism, all firmly rooted in the real world as well as the world of D-FAZ's music. It's not an entirely novel concept especially in indie rap, but I have to give him points for his sincerity and energy in putting it all together (as well as his timeliness, although when in the last 50 years have messages like these been anything but timely?).

D-FAZ's instrumentalists are undoubtedly talented as well. While not being a huge fan of electronic music, I do find I enjoy the sounds they create. Their music provides a very apt landscape upon which to display the story line of the album. Bleak, eerie and anxious, a feeling of bad things coming to pass. Overall the sound is more electronic based than the EP, although there are definitely punk and metal elements to be discovered as well, and some especially noteworthy work from the percussionist. I found myself ultimately hearing a bit of the band Tool in their work on tracks like "One Nation". The songs often stretch to 5 minutes long with drum heavy breaks and knob twisting sound effects, and these musicians also have a chance to display their chops on a few instrumental tracks sprinkled here and there on the album. “Rosebud" was a beautiful example of this, although I actually felt that Brzowski could have written something amazing for it, which is unfortunate.

I did like this album a lot, however I still have to say that I prefer Brzowski's solo work or Vinyl Cape. It may just be opinion (I will always like the sounds of instruments or turntables more than the electronic stuff that seems to be huge these days), but I also felt in a few places that Brzowski's vocals didn't quite mesh with the instrumentals, and sometimes it seemed like the collaboration was a little bit forced. That's not a commentary on the skill of any parties involved, just a feeling I had that maybe the band could use some time together to work out a way to let everyone shine in every song. I recognize how difficult that probably can be in acts like this. I'm still excited to hear more from them, and I still highly recommend the album.

D-FAZ is, as stated on their website an attempt to "erase the division between I/We and the dreaded They/Them", so join Us and check it out today!


Don't be put off by the preorder flag still on the Bandcamp download, you can now purchase and download this album, in full, from the ever amazing Dora Dorovich right over here.

Zoën ‎– Tour CD October 2008 (2008)

This week we're bringing you, coming straight outta France, Zoen's "Tour CD October 2008." The title really gives you all the relevant info you need. It's a tour release (homemade cdr though, not so much "CD") from 2008. I believe the tour at hand was a European run involving Zoen, Noah23, Swordplay, and James P Honey (hence such names appearing on the release.)

The project collects 10 tracks including previously released songs, demos, remixes, instrumentals, and vocal tracks. It's a good chance to enjoy Zoen's production, which is often melancholy melodic and incorporates a lot of different sounds, if you haven't recently. I can't speak to Zoen's French lyrics, but he does sound good both when he's singing and rapping!

This is an older non-scene rip I found online, so props to the original ripper! Enjoy! 

[Thanks to Nathan Smart who hooked up Dimxsk with something off his wish-list!] 

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