for fans of Shabazz Palaces., B L A C K I E, Das Racist

singles to download ‘Up My Sleeves’ & ‘On GP’

At this point, it is pretty hard to introduce Death Grips. This trio, consisting of rapper MC Ride (Stefan Burnett), drummer Zach Hill and producer Andy Morin, has created some of hip-hop’s most experimental and abrasive music over these last three years. They’ve also managed to piss a lot of people off. They’ve broken record contracts, cancelled almost every tour they’ve planned and booked concerts with the express intention of not showing up. They broke up out of nowhere and now claim they’re going on tour. For their new double album, “The Powers that B,” they released part one (“N—– on the Moon”) an entire year before part two (“Jenny Death”)—causing fans to question whether “Death” even existed. You could reasonably call them either punk antiheroes, or just plain a–holes; the jury is still out. One thing is for certain: they’ve made some pretty interesting, genre-defying music. They take as much influence from punk, electronic and industrial music as they do hip-hop. In every way, they’re pretty hard to pin down, and this new double album finds them walking further down that path.

“N—– on the Moon,” part one of this album, presents some of Death Grips’ most experimental and enigmatic music to date. All eight tracks feature sampled vocals of Icelandic singer-songwriter Bjork. However, the band has disassembled these samples in such a choppy manner that one can hardly recognize Bjork’s voice. The result is disorienting and glitchy. In some cases, this pays off fantastically. The album commences with “Up My Sleeves”—one of Death Grips’ strongest openers to date. The instrumental whirs and buzzes hellishly before descending into glitchy chaos. One moment, MC Ride screams maniacally and the next his voice glitches like a broken record. While never sitting still, the track maintains its dark intensity and mysteriousness. On “Black Quarterback,” the hectically layered Bjork samples complement Ride’s ferocious voice. The verses build toward a very memorable breakdown. During “Billy Not Really,” Ride comes pretty close to conventional rapping over one of the album’s strongest beats.

As a whole, Ride’s lyrics reflect the sonic fragmentation of the album. In many places, his lyrics are indecipherable—though certain themes do reoccur. “Up My Sleeves” features memorable lines about mortality and death, as Ride screams urgently that he needs to “quench [his] hearse,” going on to say, “I should be worried…I’m temporary.” His lyrics deal heavily with paranoia, the supernatural and violence—however, on “Moon,” his thoughts appear more scattered than ever.

Unfortunately, “Moon” quickly looses momentum in its second half. By about track five, we have heard Bjork’s vocals sliced, diced and chopped together in this glitchy way so many times that the instrumentals feel painfully redundant. Songs like “F— Me Out” and “Voila” have virtually indistinguishable beats, and not in a flattering way. These moments also feature Ride at his most toned-down, a style that doesn’t suit him too well. None of these tracks are bad, but they do seem dull in context and offer little new direction for the album. After listening to “N—– on the Moon,” I couldn’t help but think (and hope) that Death Grips had more up their sleeves.

In many ways, “Jenny Death” proves that they do. Sonically, it takes a drastically different approach. The most notable shift lies in Death Grips’ use of live instrumentation. Many of the tracks feature live guitars and an acoustic drum kit (which Zach Hill aggressively bashes, of course). This results in one of the band’s heaviest and most punk-inspired albums yet. Menacing guitar riffs define the chorus of “Turned Off,” while the verses blend aggressive synths and guitars quite sinisterly.

Other tracks utilize these guitars in different ways, such as “Centuries of Damn,” which features slicker and more psychedelic tones that prove equally memorable. Instrumentally, we’re getting a good deal of diversity here. The title track, “The Powers that B,” features an undeniably catchy hook that devolves into an aggressive breakdown of brittle and distorted synthesizers. This breakdown is reminiscent of the song “System Blower,” from the group’s album “The Money Store,” which distorted and compressed the grunt of tennis star Serena Williams into an intensely unrecognizable sound. “Death” isn’t without faults though, for sometimes the guitar riffs border more on Nu-Metal than punk, sounding a tad bit generic on tracks like “Why a B—- Gotta Lie.” However, as a whole, “Jenny Death” is one of the group’s best and most well-rounded albums instrumentally.

Of course, we cannot forget about Ride, who gives some of his best performances here as well. On “Turned Off,” Ride (or the character he portrays) sounds as nihilistic and frightening as ever, saying “I’ve been spinnin’ chambers since the day I was born,” going on to imply that he gets “turned on” by “turning off” (i.e., ending) people’s lives. Ride has always embodied base, primal instincts and villainous violence, but he seems particularly threatening here. On “Inanimate Sensations,” each verse takes a very different route: he shouts chaotically in one, whispers eerily in the next, pitch shifts his voice deathly low in another and finally raps more traditionally in the last. The track builds and accelerates with ferocity, as Ride contemplates our technologically dependent world, shouting, “I like my iPod more than f——.” Plus, he calls himself “Axl Rose in a blender”—an oddly accurate description of his persona.

The penultimate track, “On GP,” undoubtedly serves as the album’s apex. One of Death Grips’ most morbid tracks, “On GP” is also one of their most personal moments. The guitar’s chugging chords and eerie leads suddenly lead to a dark and spacy analog synthesizer; Ride’s aggressive yelling swiftly becomes subdued and despondent. He expresses hopelessness and alienation—his most recent purchase is an “old black rope” to “hang…in his chamber.” Most interestingly, Ride refers to himself as “Stefan” on this track. For the first time on any Death Grips record, it seems we are hearing from Stefan himself—not Ride or one of his psychotic, villainous characters, but the actual man behind the mask, revealing his tortured thoughts.

While morbid, the track ends on a somewhat positive note, as he claims his friends and family have helped motivate him to keep living, saying “All the nights I don’t die for you/ Wouldn’t believe how many nights I ain’t died for you.” He still reminds us, though, that his struggle is constant.

In many ways, “The Powers that B” seems a logical conclusion to Death Grips’ music. “Jenny Death” ties together many of the band’s sounds—from debut release “Exmilitary” to “The Money Store” and more—while pushing them into new territory as well. “Moon” encapsulates their more esoteric and mysterious side as well. Certainly, the album has its faults, and it definitely runs too long. Yet it still serves some of their best music yet and perfectly summarizes their short, strange career.

So is this really the end for Death Grips? It is impossible to tell. Anyone who thinks they can predict this band’s next move is a fool. For now, I suggest you sit back, ignore the antics and enjoy the music.