Martintox Presents: Disorder Reviews
Rating System
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DEATH GRIPS ALBUMS RANKED BY ACCURACY OF THEIR TITLE
Rating System
I have a new album and a new Disorder Reviews blog.
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DEATH GRIPS ALBUMS RANKED BY ACCURACY OF THEIR TITLE
For the entirety of the 2010s, Death Grips have shown both a relentless desire to push the envelope of their style and an uncanny mastery of the Internet as a medium for musical propagation. Shortly after hitting the scene, already fully-formed with the debut EP and Exmilitary, they built upon their industrial hip hop sound and experimented with minimalistic instrumentation, glitch, electronic dance, noise rock, and even digital hardcore, doubling down on the aggression that is core to their music with every subsequent release. Arguably just as important are their unpredictable and risqué behavior as a band, including (but certainly not limited to) their self-release of No Love Deep Web to avoid waiting for their label Epic to do so in 2013.
The opacity of this group has become an essential part of their online presence, and it is thanks to this that they have kept the promotional cycle of their releases fresh thus far (if there is one in the first place; some of their material came out without any warning). However, while their album titles look to be just as cryptic, some of them are actually quite honest, delivering profound insight to the most astute of fans. I have thus elected to rank these records by the accuracy of their names; to simplify the matter, there will be no EPs, even if it means I will have to go over important parts of their discography such as Steroids (which would get a low placement, because listening to it gives me a rush more akin to cocaine than DHT). I will also rank Niggas on the Moon and Jenny Death separately instead of The Powers That B.
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#1: YEAR OF THE SNITCH (2018)
#1: YEAR OF THE SNITCH (2018)
Year of the Snitch may well be Death Grips' most bizarre release thus far, and that's no small feat. Instead of pushing forward with a specific sound, the group take a bit from all the styles they have covered thus far and pass it all through a production style that combines unusually quiet mixing with heavy processing effects and chaotic samples and percussion. The record often seems to drown out its bass range with its mids and treble sounds, further emphasizing the purposefully raw and "muddy" aesthetic. It may be a tough nut to crack for those more accustomed to their (comparatively) more accessible earlier material, but it's also a watershed in sheer name honesty. Believe it or not, I actually used to go to the same high school as MC Ride; the title Year of the Snitch is a reference to an incident in which the two of us had planned to clog the boys' bathroom on the third floor to get back at some small guy named Richard. Ride even told me he envisioned this prank as a "shitshow". Unfortunately, he visibly had a dilemma, and ultimately snitched on me to the principal. I got a week of detention for this, but don't worry, I got my revenge on him by doing it in his house instead. I appreciate that he has finally brought this little story to light with this title, it brings back some great memories.
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#2: NO LOVE DEEP WEB (2012)
#2: NO LOVE DEEP WEB (2012)
Fans who expected more of The Money Store must have been in for a deep, penetrating surprise with this one. Already more than eager to avoid artistic stagnation, the band followed their most accessible and straightforward release with a collection of overall slower tunes, with sparse beats and even more abstract lyricism. I, myself, needed some time to appreciate this, but when it clicks, it's clear how unique a role it plays in their catalogue. Also very respectable is its title, which shows that Death Grips have had their finger on the pulse of the Internet since very early on. It makes for a profound statement on how individuals that use the web as their primary form of communication can see their perception of interpersonal relationships morph with time; it can reach the point where they enter a dark state of mind, in which they obsess over the supposed importance of a close relationship in a way that only prevents them from pursuing a meaningful one. This is, in part, because it's not on the deep web that you find hot singles in your area.
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#3: GOVERNMENT PLATES (2013)
#3: GOVERNMENT PLATES (2013)
This is one of the group's most maligned albums, and while I disagree with the consensus, I can understand it. Death Grips attempt to expand on the sparse production of No Love Deep Web by re-injecting some of the speed and aggression of their prior releases, and it works in the case of its bookends as well as "Feels Like a Wheel", all three of which wildly oscillate between different grooves. However, the same can't be said of the other songs, which end up squandering what good ideas they have with their repetitious song structures, made all the more obvious by the sonic minimalism. Even so, the title redeems these issues in great part. Starting here, a long-running story arc has taken form, in which it is revealed that the band are a government-funded psyop that had rebelled around the time they pretended to break up in 2015. Government Plates may thus be a subtle reference to their status as a manufactured project, with the repetition of the cuts therein bringing to mind images of mass-produced car license plates. All of a sudden, the album's flaws become a fascinating conceptual element.
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#4: JENNY DEATH (2015)
#4: JENNY DEATH (2015)
The anticipation for this album's release was genuinely electrifying. Those who were there know how insane it was -- the surprise disbandment, the release of "Inanimate Sensation" which sounded like a supercharged version of something off Exmilitary and only left the avid fans more excited to experience this mythical double album in full, the hours spent spamming JENNY DEATH WHEN, the leak, hot damn. It was worth the wait, too: it marks a strong return to the group's industrial-centric roots, stepping away from the frantic pacing of the last few releases to focus on straightforward, abrasive rhythms. Particularly notable is the guitar work that turns much of the material into powerful noise rock workouts. Some of the group's best songs, namely "Why a ***** Gotta Lie" and "On GP", are a result of this experimentation. However, the album title continues to puzzle me. For all the memes, no one seems to have stopped to wonder just who the hell Jenny is anyway. OK, she dies, fair enough, but where did she come from? Does she have anything to do with Lil Boy from No Love Deep Web? Is she the woman on the cover of Fashion Week, making that a prequel of sorts? This character is introduced out of nowhere, and suddenly she dies? I like the idea and the execution of Jenny Death, but I feel that they inserted this event into the canon in a sloppy way, which only serves to make the Death Grips lore even more confusing.
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