No Bird Sing
Definition Sickness

THE REVIEW

They are:

-Graham O'Brien: drummer/producer

-Robert Mulrennan: guitarist/producer

-Joe Horton: emcee

Together they make No Bird Sing. A trio strangely still unknown. A trio that until now has released 3 albums, each more spectacular than the last. Strangely unknown also because even in the first album there are features like Eyedea, rest his soul, not just anyone. I mean, on the contrary, the best of the best, I dare say. Eyedea is even mentioned a couple of times in the album's lyrics. Not just in the lyrics, I mean, if you’re doing Rap in the second decade of the twenty-first century (bear in mind I say Rap, not garbage) how can you not be influenced by Eyedea? Ok, that's enough, I believe the point has been made, I won't mention it anymore.

The thing is this: Definition Sickness is phenomenal, not that the two predecessors are not astonishing, but Definition Sickness is phenomenal. Unusual, very personal, and magnetic. Unusual not only because it is very personal, this is a group that is immediately recognizable, but also because it is terrifyingly beautiful. A number of levels above most of what you might think of as Indie Hip Hop.

Joe Horton has a deep and hypnotic flow, incisive, one of the best voices I know in the Rap field and above all he has a lot to say. "Defining Vs. Understanding", hallucinatory reflections, paranoid delusions that hello, verses sometimes direct and caustic, sometimes existentialist and veiled.

Paranoia, both lyrically and musically, is the great theme in the beats. The suffocating start "Breathless" makes it clear, this album is not for carefree people. Dark, claustrophobic beats, where one can easily get lost. Beats that have little in common with the already rare moments of openness in the two previous works. The three have worked together long enough to know perfectly what they are doing, to lead anyone who listens to what they want, now they are a single entity, a perfect war machine. They create an album with a production that anyone else can only dream of, they do features with people like Sadistik ("Vinestar" my god guys what isn't "Vinestar"!), Sage Francis ("Don't Think" another highlight) and Kristoff Krane, but this is their album, there are no compromises, others must adapt to them. Just to be clear, without features they can do even better: "Flag Waver", "Fashionable Cannibal". And then they close everything with "Freedom Slave" that if you thought you already heard the best, well, you were wrong. In short, a new Zenith.

"Motherfuckers talk shit, but never bet against us"