Killing Season

A final teamup from Kode9 and the Spaceape, who recently died of cancer. Spaceape takes the spotlight more than on any of their other collaborations (or anything else I've ever heard Spaceape on). Beats are mostly pretty sparse. Lyrics are delivered in Spaceape's typical style, somewhere between rap and spoken word. In terms of tone, this is not a peaceful acceptance of death -- there's plenty of anger and frustration on display here. Beware the short track lengths. I like this as much as anything else Spaceape has appeared on (except maybe "Sine of the Dub", his and Kode9's "Sign o the Times" cover, which we have in the library).

RIYL: other Hyperdub stuff, rap/spoken word over weird beats, bass and weird textures, depressing songs

1. foreboding evil synth washes and ticky cymbals open. then heavy kicks and deep but buzzy bassline. manipulated vocal samples woven throughout. lyrics are grim and hallucinatory and burnt out on the world. 2:36
2. FCC (“go fuck yourself”) ticky woodblocks, ethereal pads, punchy breaky low-tempo kicks. claps and snares and synth woodwinds later. rhythm programming borrows a bit of southern hip-hop. flows mostly match the beat but go double-time at points. 2:54
3. FCC? (“pissing”) starts with just a heartbeat kick drum and subtle synth washes. trappy cymbals and buried manipulated vocals and more upfront discomfiting synths come in around 1:00. rapidly recited list of complaints about human moral frailty, beat starts to dissipate at the end. 2:01
4. slowly pulsing bright synth keys back grudging resignation and lingering discontents. subtle echo on the vocals. 1:50
5. slowly rising ethereal windswept pads and bass rumble. sirens and rustling and other city sounds. a bit of BoC-esque warble later on. trying to parse some meaning from life in the home stretch. 2:43

recommended: 4, 5 (2 if it wasn’t for the FCC)