There’s something to be said for an excess of nostalgia, and The Mammoth feels like this record is proof of it. He mumbled a lot about seeing Dark Age serfs toiling under ruined aqueducts, wondering what giants built them, while listening to this record. Look, it’s not a bad record by any means. Wiki isn’t the most complicated rapper, there’s a lot of assonance and most of the rhymes are single-syllable words chained together, but there’s a decent narrative flow to his thoughts on this record. The production, subject matter, even Wiki’s rapping style are all classic 90’s NY sound (Nas should get royalties on this), but it’s a solid imitation of a sound made better before. Sometimes the beats are choppy and repetitive sample work even by the standard of that era. Sometimes he’s rhymed “time” with “crime” for what feels like the 5th verse in a row and your eyes glaze over. But then there’s tracks like IHNY, where he manages to lock in, his storytelling plays into meter, and you see what could be. The Mammoth wishes he got a full record of that.
Highlight Tracks: IHNY, Bourbon
Worthy of Investigation?
If you really like 90’s sample-based hip hop, got for it. The Mammoth thought it was a fun experience, but not worth further pursuit.
Fires in the Distance – Circadian Promise
“Melancholic Death Metal” is a subgenre the Mammoth hasn’t heard of before. He’s certain he’s heard bands responsible for inspiring it, but it seems such a natural evolution of melodeath that he’s surprised he didn’t come across it back when he was really on his metal kick.
Overall, Fires in the Distance’s Circadian Promise is a reminder to check the genre out. Lots of the aggressiveness of melodic death metal, interspersed with the wide, bleak atmosphere that black metal is best known for. And blast beats, of course.
Lightless Day of a Songless Bird is probably the most affecting track on the album. The midpoint swell, featuring a lights-out performance by the drummer underpinning a sad dueling guitar harmony, is very impactful. It’s a sad epitaph for opportunities passed by.
Highlight Tracks: Flightless Days of a Songless Bird, Of Radiance and Levitation
Worthy of Investigation?
If this record is representative of Meleancholic Death Metal’s general sound, absolutely. Great thinking music, great listening music, overall a very enjoyable record and The Mammoth will revisit their discography, without a doubt.
BabyChiefDoIt – Rise Against My Broken Odds (R.A.M.B.O)
The Mammoth thinks there’s 20% of a good record in this album. While Drill is not his personal flavor of Hip Hop, there are some tracks here where BabyChiefDoIt goes off, and even though the wordplay isn’t complex or impressive, he brings a relentless, bordering on frenetic energy to the song. But this is an album governed by its production – when the beat is good, when Chief can be bothered to try and keep in meter with it, it all comes together fantastically (for what it is). Wait On the Run, Ghetto Love Story, and NY are a trilogy of solid tracks floating above a miasma of every stereotype about lazy rapping available. WENT WEST is easily the worst offender, naturally it’s the most listened to song on the record.
Highlight Tracks: On the Run, Ghetto Love Story, NY
Worthy of Investigation?
The Mammoth took a stab at a genre he didn’t care for, and found some things he enjoyed. But it will be a while before he has patience for another 45 minutes of drill.
Ok Goodnight – Stop/Go
A glorious whirlwind of an album. This record has prog rock elements (that occasionally veer all the way into sounding more like math rock), heavy metal, jazz, it’s a performance showpiece. Every musician is demonstrably talented, whether it’s the vocalist oscillating between a soaring, almost operatic tone to very intimate self-reflection, the drummer who is all over his kit yet still on beat, still playing to the rest of the band, and a guitar/bass/keyboard/sometimes saxophone set that’s all in sync. Yet, despite a lot of chaos in the songs on this album, every song has its own arc, it never gets lost in the maelstrom, a pitfall many talented instrumentalists fall into. It was wanting to gush about this record in particular that got the Mammoth back into his lab work and he’s grateful for it.
Highlight Tracks: 22, Humpty Dumpy (“Some Body!”), The Game, Call Me Away
Worthy of Investigation?
Without a doubt. The Mammoth has delved slightly into the work of this group and they’re relatively new, but he is quite excited to follow their work going forward. Each record is better than the last.
Kelsey Lu – So Help Me God
Really solid, melancholic pop music. It’s very produced, lots of wide soundscapes, but doesn’t restrain itself from narrowing the scope and feeling quite intimate. Kelsey has a great voice, and while there were some points where the vocal affect she was using got a bit grating (notably on American Sonnet and Only the Lonely), the general impression is contemplative, well-designed Baroque Pop. It has the overall emotional quality to serve really well as background music, but rewards deeper listening in a way that a lot of this genre fails to deliver.
Highlight Tracks: Cutting Off the Head of a Ghost, What Can I Do
Worthy of Investigation?
The Mammoth isn’t quite sure. He was drawn in, but never enthralled. Entertained, but not engrossed. Like OK Goodnight, Kelsey Lu is a relatively new artist, so he’ll take a deeper look, and would certainly recommend this to fans of this kind of orchestrated pop music. If you’re looking for a more art music-styled Lana Del Rey? This is probably for you.
