Monday, February 17, 2014

"97.92"- Flatbush Zombies & Trash Talk

























Just reading the artist credit for "97.92" makes me want to hurl a television through my bedroom window. I want to grab a baseball bat and start swinging wildly like Juan Marichal. Flatbush Zombies are the masterminds behind diabolically unhinged tracks in the vein of "Thug Waffle", "Bath Salt", and "Drug Parade". Trash Talk now float in the Odd Future universe and offer some of the more ear-splitting punk music you'll hear. How could this be anything other than the proverbial train wreck everyone is drawn to?


I don't have an answer to the question, other than to say "97.92" isn't that disaster-piece. Restrained isn't the word I'd use either, but this is closer to Pete Rock territory than the dark realm of RZA. Albeit a Pete Rock who hasn't been sleeping well. Buried in the claustrophobic boom-bap of "97. 92" are backwards snaking guitars and brief clips of what sounds like piano drowning in a vat of crude oil. On their best-behavior, there remains a bad acid-trip quality to Flatbush Zombies' performance. Zombie Juice can't seem to keep his head still while chattering through his scatterbrained verse. Meanwhile, Meechy struggles for lucid thought, preferring to "keep it cryptic" and "say what you want", which presents a terrific parallel to the track at large. Flatbush and Trash Talk could've done anything and they chose to dial it down. Which makes "97.92" all the more unnerving. 

"97.92" is the second collaboration to drop from Converse's well-cultivated CONS EP Vol. 1, following the Ratking/Black Dice split "Gauchos". The EP drops early March and you can download "97.92" here.


No comments:

Post a Comment