‘DOOM has done some indefensibly dastardly things in his time – relative felonies within the context of performance and the etiquette thereof. No-shows, no-go’s, and plenty of no bloody point in going’s though somehow the perma-masked hip hop crusader continues to hold us rapt in the palm of his oversized hands. And as he here returns with Mike Volpe, aka Clammy Clams, aka Clams Casino on production duties he appears not only to have done just that, but also to have found a rather more apt accomplice than Jneiro Jarel proved to be as the intriguingly entitled Bookfiend effortlessly betters anything and everything off of last year’s JJ DOOM full-length, Key To The Kuffs. Volpe’s beats consummately languid – conceivably even more so than DOOM’s routinely indolent delivery – they unlock certain truths concealed deep within Daniel Dumile, as he placidly fesses: “I think I still owe ‘em lil’ sumthin’ since November – whatever.” See, he should here be pleading we pay him even an iota of attention after all he’s pummelled us through in recent years and yet in the one summertime jam enduring just shy of a poxy three minutes, we’re helplessly his once more. “Who need credit when cash speak?” Who need even cash when tracks speak such unapologetic wonderment?’
DOOM (theoretically) plays next month’s TV On The Radio ATP curation.
Posts tagged DOOM.
‘I last week spoke with Parquet Courts, who went on to collectively lament the reality that there are absolutely too many records out there that never pick up the appreciation they so incontrovertibly deserve. Their Light Up Gold may well have dwindled to become one such record, were it not ignited and allowed to explode late on last year ahead of its international release next month, and we can but hope that the eponymous début release from NYC trio Survival is afforded a similarly propitious fate. It’s the sort of intensely invigorating conflation of elementary math-rock and doomy sludgefest fodder that positively squeals for your undivided attention, as the trio comprising Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Greg Smith and Jeff Bobula don’t so much usher, as callously hurl you headlong into their acutely severe bulb of aural savagery. “Ending begins/ And it’s alright/ Ending begins/ All the time” they repeatedly concur in mantric incantation that’s as though the ogre-like Matt Pike eructating his final growls out from beneath the hotfooting wheels of Maserati, and Tragedy of the Mind makes for a breakneck introduction if ever there were one.’
‘There was a grim irony to the demise of The Stool Pigeon earlier on in the year, such was the hyperbolic doom mongering assumed to speak of the then lingering uncertainties over the future of All Tomorrow’s Parties – a once in a lifetime kinda festival held in dilapidated holiday camps across Southern England, if you’ve not yet been. That is to say that mercifully, though the ‘Pigeon may have croaked it, organisers Barry Hogan and Deborah Kee Higgins live on to call upon variegated curators once more, thus making ATP so much more than an in every respect one-time jamboree. You’re doubtless already aware of May’s I’ll Be Your Mirror – a two-day shindig at the height of Alexandra Park, London which is to be headed up by the returning Yeah Yeah Yeahs and widely lionised Warpsters Grizzly Bear – though that tad deeper into the now imminent summer months reside two further three-dayers down on the South Coast. Taking place at Pontins, Camber Sands (a venue which, by ATP’s own admission, is ‘getting along in years’ and is ‘obviously not Club Med’) the two estival weekenders will be the third and fourth to take place down beside this particular bit of scummy seaside since December’s relocation for their Shellac and The National curations.
So great British meteorological caprice aside, both should (though more probably only could) be sun-speckled affairs but with events transpiring exclusively indoors, there is to be no rain on the respective multicoloured musical parades of either TV On The Radio or Deerhunter. The former take the reins over the weekend of May 10th–12th, while Bradford Cox’ latter do the honours June 21st–23rd and are to perform seminal contemporary recordings Cryptograms, Microcastle and Halcyon Digest in full on each of the three evenings. It is elsewhere, however, that both bills begin to take alluring forms.
Dave Sitek et al. favour a more energetic flair, with acerbic hip hop the genre des trois jours: kingpins De La Soul and DOOM loom large over the likes of El-P, the newly announced Death Grips and Saul Williams, while respite is to be provided by Ruban Nielson’s Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Nona Marie Invie’s Dark Dark Dark, only for the irrepressibly ebullient !!! to ratchet it right back on up again with an indefatigable dance vim. We ought then, at this juncture, not only condone heading southwards in the first instance, but so too heading to see washed out New Mexico duo North America, as well as Baltimore’s latest muzzy dream-pop ensemble, Celebration. And that’s about that for the first weekend…
For it’s that compiled dual-handedly by Bradford Cox I full well imagine which is that bit more enticing still, for not only is he performing nowhere short of four times (inclusive of a rare Atlas Sound outing) but so too The Breeders are to do Last Splash in full. Other than that, there’s to be ruination from Black Dice and rather more melodious rumination courtesy of Noah Lennox’ Panda Bear getup. Fellow AnCo critter Avey Tare also features on a line up elsewhere comprising Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier, a collaboration between Kim Gordon, Ikue Mori and Bill Nace, and experimental rabble-rousers Pere Ubu. Though most pertinently, none other than neo-classical luminary Steve Reich is to team up with The London Sinfonietta to recite a clutch of his defining compositional pieces, including Clapping Musicand Electric Counterpoint.
I’ve yet to absorb that particular piece of news fully, though the above makes the two line ups now read as below:
ATP Weekend 1 Curated By TV On The Radio
TV On The Radio & De La Soul & DOOM & Death Grips & Spank Rock & Why? & El-P & !!! & Saul Williams & Tinariwen & CSS & Doseone & Shabazz Palaces & Thee Oh Sees & Antibalas & Daniel Higgs & Dragons Of Zynth & Light Asylum & Celebration & Talibam! & Lone Wolf & Cub & Dark Dark Dark & North America & Unknown Mortal Orchestra & Bouquet.
ATP Weekend 2 Curated By Deerhunter
Deerhunter performing Cryptograms, Microcastle and Halcyon Digest & The Breeders performing Last Splash & Steve Reich & The London Sinfonietta & Tom Tom Club & Atlas Sound & Rhys Chatham with Oneida & Panda Bear & Robyn Hitchcock & Kim Gordon, Ikue Mori & Bill Nace & James, Roj & Julian & William Basinski & Avey Tare & Pere Ubu & Dan Deacon & Black Dice & Tim Gane & Laetitia Sadier & No Age & Black Lips & Ex Models feat. Kid Millions & Samara Lubelski & Blues Control with Laraaji & Eric Isaacson.
Information on both curations can be found over at the official All Tomorrow’s Parties site, with TVOTR ticket options here and Deerhunter equivalents here.
‘I’ve never been one for unorthodox typography nor ungainly tags, which makes my penchant for the instrumental hip hop to so heavily drizzle down from transatlantic SoundCloud profiles that bit inconsistent. Consequently, when I find myself faced with a moniker infested with an array of alt+blah symbols, it can immediately be that bit repellent. It probably shouldn’t be – what’s in a nom de plume, after all? – though it more often than not transpires to be just so. Though rules are there for the rupturing, and an exception must be made in the peculiar case of ivel the MΘNGΘL – a precocious Virginia rapper/ producer whose palette knows no limits, by the sounds of his SoundCloud. He is, however, at his most potent when eschewing the gravelly vocal which so robustly powers the likes of Dream Cruising, as is on Educational – a giddy whiz of jazzy, almost Bondian samples, scruffy beats and squelchy melodies. Evocative of Edan at his most beguiling and DOOM at his more deft of exclusively instrumental moments, it’s a quietly sublime blend of casual East Coast insouciance that is formally inviting. Get enlightened.’
