Death Grips - Fashion Week

Is information technology a 90s loading screen of an Atari Jaguar game? Is it the soundtrack to wipE'out" 2097 on the Playstation? No! It's Mode Week past Decease Grips – wait, what?

As is Expiry Grips' wont, Fashion Week dropped past surprise1 on 4 January 2015 as a free download on the ring'south Tertiary Worlds web site sans explanation or announcement. The cover photo is that of Chicago artist Sua Yoo, who provided the artwork to Death Grips' 2012 studio debut The Money Store and drew the cryptic "Jennifer 2014" gun a few days after the group's "break-up."2

The album was offered for download in between the separately released halves of Death Grips' double-album The Powers that B – the first of which came out on 8 June 2014 – and cryptically hinted at a release appointment for the latter half. The vocal titles form an acrostic that spells "JENNY Death WHEN" – Jenny Death being the championship to the 2d disc of The Powers that B. The London Mode Calendar week in 2014 occurred in early/mid-February, leading Expiry Grips fans to speculate that Jenny Death would be released during the show's run.3 Sadly, Death Grips did not officially release Jenny Death until 31 March, although information technology was leaked ii weeks prior.4

The ring advertised Way Week equally an "instrumental soundtrack,"5 a curious modify for the industrial hip-hop group famed for the paranoid and belligerent lyricism of rapper MC Ride. The group ditched the entire industrial and punk-ish artful for what'due south ostensibly pure breakbeat; Fashion Week took the rave atmosphere on previous full-length Government Plates to its logical stop. It's very dissimilar to the nihilistic assailment of No Love Deep Web and the relatively orthodoxhalf-dozen indie/industrial hip-hop of The Coin Store.

The trouble with Way Calendar week is that it sounds unfinished. Without MC Ride'south vocal input, Mode Week sounds piffling more than a ready of fourteen demos, peculiarly in context of Death Grips' discography. The songs are swell – for the most function – just bare, and oddly decorous for a group (in)famous in independent music for anarchic songwriting. The tracks are rather typical breakbeat; if this weren't billed as a Expiry Grips anthology, so the boilerplate listener would non know any better.

There are a few highlights. "Runway J" is pure frenetic Death Grips from Government Plates, and the interruption even sounds like that from "Big House." "Track Y" and "Runway D" employ contemporary EDM. "Runway T" is the best rails on the album; it melds gated reverb, low-bpm percussion with slick and sly electronic keyboard grooves. Track twelve – the second "Runway H" – features guitars past Nick Reinhart of beau Sacramento group Tera Melos, he would besides appear on Jenny Death.

Fashion Week is a strange office of Death Grips' discography. It's hard to await at the album every bit annihilation other than hype factor/placeholder for the second half of The Powers that B, chiefly due to its presentation. The favorable tracks are recommended though, and even if the whole of Way Week lacks in multifariousness or excitement, the individual standouts elude the others' humdrum. Peradventure recommended for a Kierkegaard-themed rave or the next installment to aforementioned WipEout series.

ane. Runway J – (4:09) – ★★★★★
2. Rail East – (iii:14) – ★★★☆☆
iii. Rails N – (2:42) – ★★★★★
iv. Runway N – (three:01) – ★★☆☆☆
five. Runway Y – (4:01) – ★★★★☆
half-dozen. Runway D – (iv:43) – ★★★★☆
seven. Runway E – (3:25) – ★★★☆☆
8. Rail A – (three:37) – ★★☆☆☆
nine. Runway T – (2:36) – ★★★★★
ten. Runway H – (iv:29) – ★★★☆☆
xi. Runway Due west – (3:35) – ★★★☆☆
12. Track H – (iii:47) – ★★★★☆
thirteen. Rails E – (two:21) – ★★☆☆☆
14. Track N – (2:01) – ★★☆☆☆

Overall: ★★★☆☆

1Surprise!
iiTry as I might, I can't really find the original instagram/facebook link; but here is a screenshot: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Br6afx2IQAA_uPS.jpg
3As demonstrated by this excited 4chan posting: http://i.imgur.com/Oc4lZN0.png
iv… which shouldn't exist surprising if you're a Death Grips fan. The grouping's modus operandi is all near fucking with people.
5"Decease Grips releases surprise instrumental album Fashion Week | Music | The Guardian," Guardian News and Media Limited, accessed 17 November 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/05/death-grips-suprise-instrumental-album-fashion-calendar week
6Speaking from 2015, mind you.