Review Summary: Gloomy, gritty, gravelish - Ideological Frameworks is the first album by the hip hop artist from Brooklyn, Curanderx://
Gloomy, gritty, gravelish - Ideological Frameworks is the first album by the hip hop artist from Brooklyn, Curanderx://.
This is the moniker of Esteban Gaspar Silva, and his style is cryptic and noticeable from the first bite. I tend to assume it is related to IT, with all these symbols in his name and the album title. The release and bandcamp refer to relevant online culture with all the different fonts and built-in mysteries. For example, the intro is called 5000 years, while the commentary section brings up 5000 days that was “created by an unknown entity Jnmarto”. Is it a typo? A creepy mind***? Both? Assuming the content of the release, might be both.
The entirety of the release is composed, recorded and mixed by Curanderx himself, and it possesses a certain definite taste. All the vocals are always somewhat distorted, creating an uncanny valley atmosphere. The beats and music are also unsettling, rooting in darker and occult hip hop, imagine tthe SESH crew, but with less desperation and more depression. Wildly abstract lyrics, deconstructed melodies and monotonous trap FX - this is your recipe for the Ideological Frameworks. Sometimes you get a lil Ghostmane, a lil Dalek, a lil of every conscious (and for that matter unconscious) rapper; at times it’s a bleak surrogate baby of Kanye and Lil Peep.
The album is interesting mostly for its creative approach to composing and execution. Leaves an empty feeling inside. If you still haven’t tried ketamine - it’s the perfect tune to start with.
