Nedarb
Amity


4.0
excellent

Review

by BlushfulHippocrene STAFF
January 18th, 2019 | 9 replies


Release Date: 2019 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Redactor

On Wicca Phase Springs Eternal’s last project, Spider Web, the Gothboiclique founder spun a tale of isolation, detailing the futile death throes of a tumultous relationship, along with its surrounding rituals. Brennan Savage, on the other hand, mourned the loss of Lil Peep, imitating his childhood friend’s penchant for emo worship and overbearing choruses. Given Nedarb Nagrom (see: Braden Morgan)’s track record, a Gus feature wouldn’t have been all that surprising were he still alive. In his place, however, a long list of friends and contemporaries – a diverse crew of over two dozen featured artists. That Amity feels more like an album, then, and less like a compilation, is nothing short of a miracle. Or, it seems, the product of an immense amount of talent.

Over the course of the project’s fourteen tracks, a number of boxes are checked. Opener ‘Home on Time’, for example, weds trap, emo, and – to a lesser extent – gothic music with sufficient ease. “This is not me reaching, I’m not overthinking,” the aforementioned Wicca Phase croons, capitalising on the same muted themes, the same melodramatic drawls that characterise the better part of his own work. Artists of a similar vein make appearances throughout the album, in particular toward the beginning and end of the album. A number of sordid bangers, on the other hand, infect the album’s midsection. On ‘Triflin’’, sleeze-trappers Lil House Phone and Father spit over shifting bass rumbles and various porn samples. Or, I suspect, ad libs from collaborator Bootychaaain whose name speaks for itself. Later, on ‘Freak Show’, this last artists delivers some of the album’s best verses, a sexed-up collection of zoned-the-fuck-out, albeit well-structured freak outs.

Of course, the number of talented artists on Amity predispose it to a certain level of success. Given its sonic and thematic disparities, however, to have left the collection of tracks to its own devices would’ve been detrimental to both its cohesion and, in turn, its potency. Were it not a Nedarb album, that is, for the producer’s talents are two-(or, perhaps, three)-fold. On an individual level, each of the album’s instrumentals cater to each of the album’s artists. Each, of course, has that characteristic “Nedarb” sound. Just how versatile that sound is, though, is nothing to be understated. With co-producer Yawns, Nedarb crafts an ethereal nightmare on highlight ‘Head Over Heels’. Building atop simple, no less effective piano touches and gorgeous woodwind (perhaps flute) sussurations, Nedarb produces a lethargic emo-trap anthem, painting pictures of clubs in slow motion. The instrumental is fitting for the GBC, Misery Club members who feature on it. Likewise, the mid-album bangers boast greater variation, as well as a considerable bass boost and an emphasis on the use of samples. To be sure, Nedarb understands his artists as well as he does his audiences.

The album is, as such, structured so as to bring closure to its conflicts. If nothing else, its thread is friendship – or, at least, the spirit of collaboration. Its thread is, of course, Nedarb. Its shift from soft-spoken crooning to all-out bangers is as seamless as one could hope. An interlude featuring Alice Glass bridges the album back toward an emphasis on the emo, and once more toward hip hop at the album’s close. A KirbLaGoop feature graces the album’s penultimate track, and the closer ‘Babygangsoldiers’ is as silly as its title suggests – an ostensibly freestyled banger of incomprehensible mumbles that has less variation in its six minutes than the shortest tracks do in their two. It’s fun as heck and brings to a close an album that, in spite of its seriousness, has a relatively simple core. Not one of doom and gloom, as I first suspected. But of harmony and cohesion. Of amity, not enmity.



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user ratings (10)
3.2
good


Comments:Add a Comment 
BlushfulHippocrene
Staff Reviewer
January 18th 2019


4053 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

A short one. Thanks. Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/nedarbnagrom/sets/amity ... or on one of the popular streaming platforms. [:

verdant
Emeritus
January 18th 2019


2505 Comments


crispy review

WatchItExplode
January 18th 2019


10526 Comments


This was a nice smooth read and painted a clear picture confirming this is not for me.

Sowing
Moderator
January 18th 2019


44593 Comments


I don't care about this artist and probably won't check it out, but I read the review for the pleasure of blush's sweet prose and it didn't disappoint.

ScreamoGaze
January 18th 2019


383 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Damn I was gonna review this



Anyways this is like a top 10 for the emo/underground rap scene right now and it's amazing just how many features Nedrab got



Also I love the stupid ass saetia hoodie o the cover

BlushfulHippocrene
Staff Reviewer
January 19th 2019


4053 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Thanks a bunch friends! And Screamo, please do still -- I'd love to hear your thoughts, this review just scratches the surface of an album that has an insane amount going for it.

ianblxdsoe
January 19th 2019


1921 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

this album is sincerely outstanding, even for how.... incohesive it feels?? it’s almost like a long tapestry of what’s been happening more recently in underground rap, and mostly what Nedarb knows best, so for that reason it works. but damn this album is just purely fun and intriguing in a so many different ways that are sort of hard to pinpoint i guess? by the way blush, this review is impeccably thorough and masterfully written for how random and underground most of these artists/producers are. so hats off to you for giving this album and these artists the justice they deserve (and most likely wouldn’t get on here otherwise), because i can see a lot of reviewers being close minded towards such a record/artist that is so 'all over the place' like this album is. anyways hard ghost pos hahah

ianblxdsoe
January 19th 2019


1921 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

also sidenote: Head Over Heels, Home on Time, and Trifilin' easily are the standout tracks here imo. i really wish there was more nedarb x tracy, or nedarb with wicca phase collabs out there. but this album definitely does its job enough for me to not complain lol

BlushfulHippocrene
Staff Reviewer
January 19th 2019


4053 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Thanks Ian! That means a lot. I find it hard to keep up with "the underground" in a broader sense, but within these specific scenes, I agree that this is such a masterful representation / collation. There's so much bullshit within the wider culture, too, it's good to see all these artists together. (Little things like Black Kray appearing on the closer despite past beef with GBC.)



Also, agreed on those standouts. I think, weirdly, though, this album shows the disjunct(?) between Wicca and a lot of the other artists (minus, like, Zubin and the rest of Misery Club), including Nedarb. It's seriously incredible that a song like Home on Time even fits here.



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