Death Grips
Bottomless Pit

The Death Grips return, bringing back their music of defiance.

They had kept us waiting, even threatening to quit, but here they are again, assailing our eardrums with a new album, another chapter in their inspired discographic saga.

It was mid-2015 when The Powers That B finally reached its completion. The Sacramento band's ability to create and ride the hype induced by their music led them to embark on new tours, but most importantly to announce a new studio album.

In October 2015, Bottomless Pit was announced, accompanied by a rather disorienting video in which the late actress Karen Black recites a dialogue written by the band's drummer, Zach Hill.

Then silence, or almost. Engaged in numerous live dates, as already mentioned, the Death Grips approached their audience by first posting a new single, "Hot Head", and subsequently a second non-interview video, whose background music later became an EP of instrumentals only, titled Interview 2016, musically similar to Fashion Week, another instrumental episode from the Californian band. Additionally, a day before the release, akin to an ARG, a phone number was released through which it was possible to hear a second song, "Trash", as well as several more or less cryptic samples.

With the necessary introductions made regarding this new full-length, there are three aspects of this band that have always fascinated me.

The ability to combine so many disparate influences; the skill to blend it all into something incredibly catchy and easily digestible, direct, in-your-face; the constant quality from one release to the next, as if born from a continuous and inexhaustible inspiration, where each discographic episode offers new insights, new interpretations of a sound as sophisticated and unpredictable as it is recognizable and original.

The songwriting of the new-born Bottomless Pit, in particular, serves as a summa of all this.

All the influences, from the seminal Ex-Military to the convulsive The Money Store, from the cybernetic No Love Deep Web with its mini-twin (for the writer) Government Plates, to the digital/punk/rap fury of the double The Powers That B, are collected here, culminating in a 40-minute singularity of compositional sagacity. Such musical heterodoxy that will hardly leave you apathetic and indifferent, from the first listen, whatever your listening background might be. Those who loved them will love them even more, those who don't know them and are looking for something truly unique will have found their jam.

If the first part of the album attacks with ferocity among black metal-esque blast-beats ("Giving Bad People Good Ideas"), tongue-twisters from a chronically possessed of who knows what evil ("Hot Head") and throbbing hurricanes with an electronic/synthetic/guitar aftertaste ("Spikes", "Warped"), it's in the continuation that the atmosphere and the various pieces of the sonic puzzle of the Death Grips emerge. An absolute anarchy where even more catchy episodes ("Eh", "Houdini") and others more cadenced and balanced ("Bubbles Buried In This Jungle", "BB Poison", "80808") complete an oxymoronic ordered/schizophrenic succession of ascents and descents, making the listening fun and never yawn-inducing. The sound textures are so intricate and peculiar, and by making the difficult easy and the noisy melodic, the Death Grips touch a multitude of things, with extreme class and a great deal of roughness.

This music is now a hyper-protein shake of rap, electronics, guitars, and noise music. And believe me, the obscure term "Industrial Hip Hop" is no longer of any use.

Stefan Burnett, aka MC Ride, forcefully takes the scepter of the best frontman in recent times. Apologies to the purists of rap, hardcore punk, or metal, but his performance behind the microphone is incredible, gigantic, knowing how to manage emotions, grit, anger, and various paranoias. It would make Mike Patton proud! From screams to whispers, the brawny singer acts as a perfect link in the fierce beauty of this music so full of insights. Behind him, the immense work of Zach Hill and Flatlander; the former on drums is an absolute prodigy, navigating every type of rhythmic pattern; the latter truly demonstrates wisdom in creating a homogeneous work between synths, guitars, noise-making, and sampling.

Absolutely unmissable in a 2016 already full of many interesting releases.

Greetings to the readers of DeBaser!