Josh Stephenson - 7/23/2012

Different music evokes different feelings within yourself, I'm sure many of you have listened to a piece of music that has transported you to a tropical beach with a fruit cocktail in your hand as the waves crash against the cliffside. Or perhaps something that recalls your first love, the innocence and excitement you felt as your feelings for that special someone grew and grew from their humble origins. Well Death Grips 'The Money Store' evokes neither of those feelings, it is a record that makes you want to take a drill to the skull whilst you pound into the face of an acquaintance for no other reason than because you can. It is a record that shows the worst of humanity, the violence, the perversion, the greed, and despite all this will undoubtedly be one of my favourite records of the year.

Death Grips are a 3-piece experimental hip-hop group from Sacramento, California, they specialise in making abrasive, and explosive electronic beats for rapper MC Ride to par his raw, disgusting lyrics to. They broke onto the scene last year with the excellent Exmilitary mixtape, which was quite unlike anything I've ever heard before, and this prompted Sony music division Epic Records to sign them to a deal (thus proving that music executives are still willing to take risks in the modern age). 'The Money Store' then is Death Grips major-label debut and it expands upon the foundations laid out before to glorious effect, nothing can quite prepare you for what follows the opening drum beat to opener 'Get Got' as it explodes into this impossibly loud electronic squelch, which buries itself inside your brain and refuses to let up. From that point on 'The Money Store' never relents for a second, producer Andy Morin and producer/drummer Zach Hill do a wonderful job of creating these vivid and exciting landscapes for MC Ride to rap over, coupling live drumming with some truly innovative sampling techniques, taking something as simple as the screech Serena Williams makes as she connects with her first serve into the bedrock for the entire track, in fact it has been revealed that a lot of the sampling choices were found by the group raiding Youtube for a sound that excited them, or even recording sounds they heard in the outside world. It means that you never truly know what to expect next and that is what makes Death Grips such an exciting group to listen to.

Second track 'The Fever' demonstrates the template most Death Grips tracks are built off, a grumbling, drone of a synth gradually getting louder and louder until it sounds like an alarm going off in your head before exploding into the main beat of the track. MC Ride less raps as he does violently assault the microphone, if you're a fan of silky smooth rappers with caramel-esque flows then look away, Ride's vocal delivery is limited constantly pushing the limits of his throats tolerance. What he says isn't anymore appealing conventional storytelling is of no concern to Ride, happy to scream out whatever deranged thoughts come into his mind at any one moment, these have a habit of getting buried beneath the insanity that surrounds him, but this only makes lines such as 'ankles turn to cinder blocks' all the more disturbing. One thing that constantly surprises me about Death Grips is that despite the apocalyptic soundscapes they present, the hooks they have are impossibly catchy, tracks such as 'Hustle Bones' have choruses most mainstream artists would kill for, filled with twinkling synths that ricochet back and forth in the mix whilst the bass drum drives the insanity, it's tailored-made for the bright lights of the club.

An album highlight follows in the superb 'I've Seen Footage' built off a guitar riff that sound like its been put through a torture rack, it sets the scene for MC Ride to tell a tale of modern paranoia; when every little thing that you do is on record where can you escape to? Ignoring the fact that this is a highly original idea to find in Hip-Hop, the way that Death Grips present it is in their own inimitable style telling tales of a young boy getting his head caved in by a concrete block as they 'rewind it/it's so cold', yet despite all of this 'I've Seen Footage' is impossibly catchy and once you've heard its hook once it will be stuck in your head all day. Eccentricities can be found all over this record, little moments that disorientate you in a way music shouldn't be able to, 'Punk Weight' kicks off with an Indian-infused beat, which goes on just long enough for you to get used to it before it roars into one of the dirtiest, throbbing synth groans I've ever heard; seriously get yourself a pair of decent headphones and wait for your ears to beg for mercy. 'B***h Please' has MC Ride suddenly breaking into a fake patois for no reason other than he can, quick shout-out to the production on this track as it really is stellar work whilst doubling as a welcome respite for the madness that is about to follow.

Before we get to the mad genius that is 'Hacker' let's have a look at the aptly titled 'The Cage' very few songs evoke a feeling of enclosure as this song does, the way that the synths bounce around the mix feels closer on each loop, slowly turning up the pressure until you can barely feel yourself breathe, couple this with some distorted bass and MC Ride screaming raw violence in your ear it's a track that builds and builds until the lyric 'fight this asshole right next to you' feels less like a lyric and more like a demand. Right on to the undoubted best track on the record 'Hacker' rightly placed at the end of the record, this is an over-the-top piece of indulgence that has been earned through 12 flawless tracks. Essentially built off a stuttering drumbeat, military-esque in style, it is a masterclass in layered production throwing in sounds impossible to describe, and at times source, it lays a platform for MC Ride's most deranged performance yet. Telling tales of women's water breaking in the Apple store, visiting Tesla's grave, shredding 13 times out of 11, and teaching b*****s how to swim it is manic in its energy and utterly compelling to listen to. Critics would say that Death Grips are pretentious and trying to hard, which would be a nonsense everything is too raw, too dirty for anything other than complete sincerity to be coming through; undoubtedly Death Grips are angry and they want you to be to.

I love this record. I expect that is clear to see by now, there is in my opinion not a bad track; everyone has merit to it in some way and that is a rare thing to see in the modern age. This isn't a record for everybody it does everything it can to push you away, the production, the lyrics, and the delivery it's unlike anything you will have heard before and that can make it a difficult to get into. If you can get past that though you're left with a record that will open up new facets everytime you listen to it, a body blow of a record that will still stay with you long after the final track ends. So I implore you give this record a go, it may be utterly repellent to you, but you will be able to say that I heard something unique and exciting today. How many times do you get to say that nowadays?