New Music: Mood Patrol - Mood Patrol

 

 

Well looks like pictures are working. Unfortunately I like my Chakra poem description of Neila's cover so it's staying up.

Today I have something new and exciting to get the word out on. Meet the Mood Patrol EP. The Southwest's Fang Over Fist Records, another amazing find from Fake Four Inc.'s amazing Freecember deal is proud to release a brand new collaboration between the phenomenal Cecil Tsoh (formerly Whatever Cecil, nka Tsoh Tso), B.Moore on the raps and Lady Quasar on the singing tip.

I was only familiar with Mr. Tsoh at the time of my first listen, but I have to say I really enjoyed this EP (for the record in case you haven't noticed, I basically don't review anything I can't give a fairly positive review on. And if I don't absolutely like something I've agreed to review, I will try very hard to paint it in a positive light without lying or exaggerating. I like to think of these New Music posts as promos as opposed to real 'reviews'. That said, that is not the case here this shit is dope.) and I think you will too. It's easy in this day and age, with the huge volume of random collaborations between hungry indie hip hoppers to dismiss an album when you don't recognize all of the names, but there truly is something magical at work here in the interplay between the singer, the rapper and the producer.

The beats here are simply beautiful. Tsoh Tso has been making noteworthy music ever since popping up circa 2010 with An Illustrated Mess and he has steadily improved. At this point with his sample based production such as we find here, he has perfected his own style of chopping and rearranging songs to form collages of true beauty and substance. These beats exemplify the best kind of sample based production, making use of layering, effects and unorthodox percussion ("New to What's Been Orbiting") to entirely own every note. In fact, I would say these beats are my favorite type of production and were what initially attracted me to hip hop. Hitting hard enough to keep the head nodding while retaining subtlety and mood. If you miss Dark Time Sunshine Vessel era, you're gonna love this.

Lady Quasar is a great choice to keep these songs fresh and unique as well. Again, there are SO many rappers out these days, making so many albums and EPs with their peers. Choosing to recruit a vocalist to provide melodies on every song, especially when the production is so heavily melody driven was an excellent decision. And she is by no means a gimmick or just a pretty voice. Her vocal style is slightly Squalloscope slightly Dilly Dilly, toeing the line between rapping and singing and generally crafting the vibe we hear throughtout the album. Her participation is absolutely necessary for this to work.

Lastly we have B.Moore the rapper. I need to either see a lyric sheet or listen more to this EP to fully grasp the story to each of these songs, but I can tell you B.Moore writes with a good sense of drama, unusual wordplay and a penchant for dark imagery. With repeated listens I am reminded again and again of DTS in their prime with this album, especially because of B.Moore's relentless and fantastical lyrical style. I plan to dive into this more deeply as soon as possible.

Once again Fang Over Fist kills it. My only complaint? Too short! This collaboration is gold, and I think it really would have been great to build up a larger volume of songs before releasing the album. I truly hope, guys, if you read this that you're inspired to flesh this out. Beautiful work!

Get the EP right here, today and forever more!

New Music: Thorts & Whatever Cecil - Long Distance

 

 

So, as I mentioned last time around Thorts, a personal favorite of mine and an artist who's been particularly friendly towards the work we do here at UGF dropped a new EP recently with Whatever Cecil of An Illustrated Mess. I literally just (Monday night) listened to this album from start to finish (around 20 minutes total) and I wanted to drop a quick note because it really is phenomenal.

Over mostly guitar driven melodic tracks Thorts is at his introspective best, honestly speaking about fatherhood, mental illness and music with his usual blend of cynical humor and touching sincerity. His work has always struck me as deeply personal and as a result it benefits from a vivid quality that makes Thorts a standout.

Whatever Cecil is also in top form and every single beat on this bite sized album is absolute gold, beautiful but not boring in any way. His use of guitar on almost every track is supplemented and enhanced with eclectic drums samples and creative effects to liven things up, moving away a bit from the dreamlike sleepy synths he made use of on the last Illustrated Mess record to, in my opinion improve on his evident talent and keep things surprising. I feel with time Cecil could be the next Factor, producing beats that bring out the completely unheard and unimagined qualities every guest rapper (Lawson Graham did that for me on every track).

Finally, this album is truly notable for the eclectic and unlikely cast of guest rappers. Every track has at least one guest and Thorts showcases a notable humility and lack of ego in letting so much of the album bearing his name showcase the talents of others. OneWerd is as always personable and deep, HeirMAX is weird and wonderful, Scatty Stormborn lives up to the rapidly growing hype and of course Prosodic of An Illustrated Mess totally blesses the opening track and shows that it's not just Cecil that's been building his skills since they last worked together.

Basically this album is a collection of fantastic voices working together over gorgeous production curated and cultivated by old soul rapper Thorts. If any of that sounds good to you get it right here. If not then I'm sure FM radio has some stuff that's more your speed. No judgement.

 

New Music: An Illustrated Mess - One More For Safety

For this Tuesday I wanted to draw a bit more attention to this album right here that completely slipped in under my radar. An Illustrated Mess (Prosodic & Whatever Cecil) is an indigenous hip hop outfit from Flagstaff Arizona, who many of you probably only know from their Fake Four debut Last Night & All of Our Glorious Mishaps, another fantastic Freecember offering. That was certainly the case for me at first. However, wanting to support an unusual perspective in hip hop and just generally having a good feeling about that album, I went back and introduced myself to all of their work (the rest of it can be found at their personal page, right here). I have to say that they hooked me with their interesting songwriting, catchy melodies and deep emotional maturity. It's also worth noting that they have gotten better with every album, culminating in the very good Does It Matter? and continuing to deliver ever since. That release is basically fire from start to finish and would absolutely appeal to any fan of the more melodic indie rap that most of us probably enjoy; Trylemma and I certainly do.

Their sound can best be described as a slightly different take on the dark folk hop sound popularized by artists like Ceschi and David Ramos, Onry Ozzborn, Ersatz Splynter, another guy who doesn't deserve mention, Otem Rellik etc. They make use of somber and sometimes beautiful melodic production, although never is it lukewarm or too sleepy, it still remains fully noddable, with a passionate lyrical style and melodic vocals. All in all it makes for hip hop that never really gets boring, and where the older stuff doesn't always instantly impress, it does give the impression of notable potential not yet fully realized and it is almost always enjoyable.

One More For Safety is their official sophomore album on Flagstaff's Fang Over Fist label, and since I had never heard of that label I was lucky to notice this title among the collections of some dudes I follow. Thanks dudes, you almost definitely don't know who you are. Lol. An Illustrated Mess' official debut on Fake Four had them upping their production values considerably, bringing on some notable guests, and growing exponentially in songwriting ability. A concept album, Last Night dealt with some very heavy issues as the main character succumbs to the various pitfalls all too common to the community they represent (Navajo Nation). Alcoholism, mental illness, targeting by law enforcement. Whatever Cecil and Prosodic now want to move a bit beyond those issues and show what happens afterwards. One More For Safety therefore is an album that provides "the growth and sense of closure that was missing (in Last Night)". "The underlying theme of this album is that of accountability, growth and family". So I have pretty high hopes for this new one, and I actually read something they wrote where they mention they had a hard time getting reviews(?!) for Last Night. In the meantime they've been making some major waves, so guess those reviewers f*cked up, but I thought why not give them whatever small recognition UGF can offer. It certainly can't hurt right, and they more than deserve it.

So unfortunately I don't have much time to dedicate on fully absorbing this album. I have to give it a rough once over and leave it at that. My first impression is this is a solid work. The production is a bit dreamier than it's been in the past, more laid back although it fits the content and actually to me is a sort of sonic equivalent of the bleak desert which might seem boring to the ignorant or inattentive, but possesses a real beauty and hidden depth that rewards those who have what it takes to grasp it. I dunno if Flagstaff is actually even desert anymore, my exposure to the Southwest and what the Navajo people call Dinétah is mostly limited to Breaking Bad, but there it is. So my point is the production isn't quite as immediately accessible as what they've done before, but it's actually more interesting in places for that. I loved the easier songs off of Does It Matter? but I respect that the artists have moved away from that style and have grown beyond that. Not to say this album doesn't still offer some instant hits like the second track "Break It" which has an amazing beat and great introspective lyricism though.

Speaking of the lyricism, this album is still chock full of insights into the lives of indigenous peoples in Arizona, including thoughts on the experience of growing up there and examples of the language, and I love it for that. I value any exposure I can get to communities and perspectives we just don't hear from enough in hip hop or elsewhere. It also never shies away from the personal and the painful, while never really being emo or losing that adult sound that two (I believe, don't know for sure but their pictures look pretty young) fairly young artists have been cultivating for a long time now. You get the impression of old souls who have grown up regrettably quickly, but retain a pride and positivity that's impressive for that. And with a dedication to "our loved one's who don't allow us to be defined by the dark", I feel like maybe that's spot on.

We have some Fake Four artists showing up here and there, with the peerless E-Turn, and the guy I keep on waiting to hear more from Heirmax representing the Southwest as well. We've got Soultru also, another Freecember alumn as well as Reason the Citizen and Def-I, two names I recognize but don't know much about. And as with their other albums we have labelmate Tre Orona (don't know how to type the accent over the "e" but it should be there).

Like I said, all I've been able to do so far is quickly sample through the tracks. I do feel like this is the type of album that requires more than that (and will reward you for it), and I almost feel like I shouldn't be posting about it until I've been able to give it that. However, I want to make sure I do my part in promoting it, just please make sure you understand that there is so much more here I haven't had a chance to touch on yet.

Get One More For Safety on Fang Over Fist's Bandcamp right over here!

And here's a dope music video for "Sunsets" off Last Night for those of you who want a quick look into what these guys are all about. Great song.