Are we sure Detroit rapper Danny
Brown and Glasgow producer Rustie aren't twins separated at birth? Never mind
the age and race differences. When I hear Brown's schizoid voice doing
cartwheels across Rustie's rapidly shifting electronic landscape in
"Attak" my mind start's inventing JFK-sized conspiracy
theories. One household could never contain so much fiendish energy, so the two
were split up for the sanity of their parents.
Developing such an outlandish
theory is all I can do to explain why Brown and Rustie work so well together.
Some of Old's
most awe-inspiring moments came when the two were teaming up and creating
addictive, MDMA-fed trap rave. But efforts like "Side B (Dope
Song)" and "Break
It (Go)" are relatively "sedate" when compared to the
blinding speed of "Attak." The drum machine hi hats tic faster than a
clock in a time travel montage. Futuristic air raid sirens swirl around the
track at F-5 tornado speeds. What I can only describe as glitch-ridden noise
swipes across "Attak" like an insanely judgmental person on Tinder.
In short "Attak" is fast, but remarkably Brown is able to keep up. He
raps "back in 2003 used to post up and roll up bag of pounds of meat, used
to trap OG with E, Greyhound bus one pair of jeans," with such lightning
quick detail you'd swear it happened yesterday. Brown never seems to be
straining, whether he’s remembering his days of slinging or the times he had to
scrap. "Knock your brain out the hat while I cop that," he nasally
threatens in the second verse. If he doesn't follow through on the threat,
Rustie surely will.
Rustie's sophomore album Green Language drops August 26 on Warp Records.
If someone were to keep score
for producers Lunice and Hudson Mohawke after the EP of laser-guided trap they made as TNGHT, it might be a unanimous decision
favoring Mohawke. Following TNGHT's release, Hudmo: hopped into the
booth for G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer comp. (including "Mercy"), added shrill blasts to "I Am A God", helped Drake go "swangin'" on the stuttering love song "Connect", and oversaw a kingpin meeting between
Pusha T and Rick Ross for the guilt-ridden "Hold On". Lunice meanwhile stayed out of the
spotlight, 2013 contains a scant two credits from him for Rockie Fresh tracks "Panera Bread" and "Superman OG". There's a Yeezus sample credit
for the Montreal native, though it's as a part of TNGHT for "Blood on the Leaves". Following TNGHT's amicable hiatus at the end of last year, all signs
pointed to Mohawke being the one to take advantage of his new found
"freedom."
"Can't Wait To", the
possible first taste of Lunice's upcoming album, obliterates those signposts
and shreds any scorecard in sight. The initial vocal stutters invite
comparisons to TNGHT's calling card "Higher Ground", though they're more sedate on "Can't Wait To".
Hearing them snake across the track an apocalyptic Burial effort comes to mind before a dance floor
groover. That's all but confirmed when deeper background vocals float over
Lunice's jackhammering bass. They sound like a ghost from a Scooby Doo episode,
if the episode was only shown once for being "too scary."
"Scary" is perhaps the best adjective to use when describing
"Can't Wait To". The glinting xylophone that comes in around the 1:10
mark is "scary." Instead of lightening the mood, it makes everything
10 shades darker. The frail keys in the final 20 seconds are "scary";
each echo makes the hairs on my arm stand up. And Lunice's prodigious work here
is "scary."
Lunice's untitled album is tentatively slated for a 2014 release through Lucky Me Records.
