Review Summary: # is another 50minutes of material to add to this decades experimental yet enticing underground hip-hop scene.
Seems like we’re living through a pivotal decade in hip-hop. Whether you like it or not, hip-hop is the genre in today’s music that seems to be pushing boundaries this decade. The likes of Drake, Tyler the Creator along with his OddFutureWolfGang, and the already legendary Kendrick Lamar who’s released what looks like two classics already for this generation. Then there’s the underground hip-hop acts such as Run the Jewels, Clipping, and Death Grips (if you could call it hip-hop). So much good music, you’d be forgiven for missing younger acts who didn’t have the luxury of spurring in the early days of this decade, but who have been quick to take inspiration from such forefront leading acts like these.
Then there’s Dead Vandals.
Dead Vandals have only seen the light of day since of 2014, so most likely, you haven’t heard of them. If you have however, you’d be quick to place them as a product of the more noisy and experimental results from acts such as Death Grips and Clipping, more so the latter. Lazy Eight’s rap style is probably closer to the Bogan style you’d expect of us typical Australian’s, only he seems very self-aware of it with his words. That said, this isn’t Australian hip-hop. No. That would be doing this injustice. # (yes, that is the title of the record) does roll off a little rickety, taking a bold sample from 10CC’s Dreadlock Holiday on Solitaire, as Lazy Eight sets the scene for this record, as he accepts that the subject matters of these songs aren’t necessarily hook laden material...at least not intentionally.
Lazy Eight isn’t your braggadocios rapper. It’s not about money, bitches, or the fact that he can write rhymes. These tracks hold darker, more honest subject matters that question purpose, addiction, depression and the short attention span of our current generation (if you couldn’t assume that already from the title). That said, the beats definitely aren’t commercially wrapped and packaged for quick listening. Mr. Society provides a plethora of loud, unconventional noise originated beats, whether it’s the throbbing bass beneath the trickling lo-fi synth sequencing of highlight Toothless, or the endless bass hum of the eerily ambient Kneel to his clever use of the old dial-up sound sequence that makes up the track Modems.
This record steadily crescendo’s as it plays out, with the second half of the record providing the more stellar of the tracks such as Mr.Society’s highlight Two Words, or Lazy Eight’s bitter victory as he closes the album on his cut-off line ‘I’ve never finished anything in my entire life.’
Sadly though this record is with its flaws. Some of the skits get a little cringe worthy between the constant mobile phone callings as Lazy Eight tries to contact Centrelink, or the ‘Pipe-face’ sequence on Hash, or Modem’s completely left field Bollywood exit (is it worth mentioning two too many of these tracks run at 4:20?).
In final though, Dead Vandals are an honest, no-bull*** duo who know the music they’re producing won’t be cut any slack anytime soon. Hell, this was released in 2014, and I’ve only gone about re-listening to this thing recently after spinning Jenny Death. If you’re after more noisy left field material like Clipping or Death Grips, that’s loud but genuine in its production (that’s right Yeezus, there’s no home for you!), then # is another 50minutes of material to add to this decades experimental yet enticing underground hip-hop scene.
