Album Review: IDK I'M HAIGH BABYS FIRST MIXTAPE by Mona Lisa

Sometimes when my vision contracts I wonder if this tiny community of hipster internet geeks sharing each others music isn't really just a glorified circle jerk; a self-congratulatory circular feed-back loop, the participants of which imagine is somehow the center of the cultural universe. And then along comes something so legitimate, so underground and fresh, that it completely restores the conviction that this cultural nexus, the DIY-internet-underground-music-scene, really IS the top of the cultural pyramid. It's everything mainstream culture isn't; authentic, organic, innovative and dynamic.

Calling this a 'mixtape'  modestly eschews the pretensions of a 'debut album', but IDK I'M HAIGH is a debut as self-assured and confident as any I've heard.  Mona Lisa is the triple threat; a rapping singer songwriter with a gift for hooks and a flair for production. Think Kitty Pryde meets Panda Bear. Despite each track having its' own producer, they are all indelibly stamped with Mona Lisa's unique vocal tone and fully developed vocal arrangements that elevate them to the status of songs.  IDK is indisputably her album.

While Mona Lisa is a rapper, the songs do not sit comfortably in any established microgenre, and clearly transcending the narrow limits of  cloud rap.  IDK contains elements of trap, witch house and, most interestingly, dream pop, but fused into a coherent synthesis of just about everything going on in net music.

The album flows nicely. The "IDK I'm High" motif is woven into many of the tracks, and the dreamy vocal arrangements reinforce the thematic unity of the set. Three of the songs  deserve special mention. "Nice Boys" is a bona-fide pop hit. Producer Lautlos provides  a spare, shimmering bed over which the three rappers deliver a hypersexy, femmed-out paen to hetero-norm relationships. Guests rappers Babeolf Hitler and Brooklyn White (who also did the cover art) step up with some seriously dope verses. The Shisa-produced "CTRL + ALT"  is instantly addictive, its' cartoonish twee vocal hook sticking in your head like gum to your shoe. "System e r r o r",  with its' basic track by d0lphin sp,  is a  vocal tour-de-force, with beautifully blissful  vocal loops swirling,  as Mona Lisa sings an amazing and emotional song with almost a rock sensibility,  even while rapping some of the verses. The result had me standing on the roof fist-pumping again, which I haven't done in a while; a perfect fusion of dream pop and trap.

Mainstream "artists" like Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus enjoy access to the best songwriters, first class producers, and the best of everything,  but all the money in the world can't  buy the artistic legitimacy or substitute for the authenticity of real teenage street-swag. 

With other great tracks by fellow Florida producers Miles Farewell and ZDG, Houston's SHMX,  4llsouls of the Netherlands and TRAP DANiEL$. 

Download IDK I'M HAIGH BABYS FIRST MIXTAPE and follow Mona Lisa on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Download: I LIKE THIS WORLD by BLOWN X BLAM FEVER

I Like This World is neat package; dark post-witch cloud rap, a well conceived theme, bad-ass tracks, and great artwork too, lovingly brought to you as a free download by the AURAL SECTS collective.

The intro to I Like This World provides the setting and context for what's to come. Dialog from the 1989 film Cyborg, set in a post-apocalyptic future, is put to perfect use. A deep voice speaks of embracing the darkness:  
"First there was collapse of a civilization - anarchy, genocide, starvation, then we got the plague - the living death - quickly closing its' fist on an entire planet. Then we heard the rumors that the last scientists were working on a cure that would end the plague and restore the world. Restore it? Why? I like the death! I like the misery! I LIKE THIS WORLD!"

The tracks are detailed epics of pounding blown-out post-witch drone. Info was sketchy, but I have it on good authority that BLOWN is the talented and prolific beat maker variously known as Party Trash, Police Academy 6, etc., with some assistance from FrZE.

The mysterious Blam Lord is known for his active blogging at Blam Blam Fever. He rides these wicked rhythms like the terminator on his chopper, delivering his deadpan invocations of god-knows-what in a unique, post-Hype Williams rap style.

The track with the most immediate appeal may be "Naja Flex", a thunderous pumping glittering monster of a track. [HANUS had the honor of debuting "Adv Alt Div" on our Y01C compilation, btw.] There's not a weak song in the set. The sonic landscapes and Blam Lord's narratives of a libertine warrior run amok , reveling in the pleasures of hell, combine into powerfully visual and evocative music. I Like This World is a window into cyber hell - the urge to peek in is irresistible, and you might just embrace it.

Download it HERE.
 

SEWER GREATS V.5 // Various Artists

The new album from internet label Sewer Greats is the fifth in a series of free compilations they have released on their Bandcamp. The label is centered loosely on the post-witch house scene, but each issue in the series has had a slightly different theme. They’re all worthwhile though I wasn’t crazy about the R&B flavored #4. This issue is a major work: the theme is rap. Each of the 26 tracks features rapping of some type, but it’s the swagged-out fringe of post-Kreayshawn / Gvcci Hvcci rap. The material ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous, and sometimes is both.

 Dolo Gang$ter -"Fuckt Up" is a good example: the refrain is “I love to get fucked up / everybody get fucked up / drank drank dat liquor / smoke smoke dat weed”, absurd when viewed as lyric content. Yet the street authenticity is undeniable, and the music behind this lyrical exercise in reducto ad absurdum is one helluva track, combining jazz samples and drag technique. This level of quality is the rule, not the exception on this carefully curated comp. Main Attrakionz’s “Chuch” is one of the best tracks here, a good example of their own brand of chill-hop. Kodak to Graph, kitty pryde, Bobbi Dahl, Michael Myerz -- all contribute interesting tracks. There's not a single track I skip when playing this.

Most feature provocative lyric content, and I can already hear the sanctimonious scorn of the ‘enlightened’ reacting. “If you’re a thoughtful person – how can you sanction this debased degenerate culture?” Attempts to make art serve some kind of social good usually results in the opposite, as in the case of nazi Germany, or in artless shit. Socially conscious hip-hop is virtually non-existent.

Or is it? The irony is that taking lyrics to this extreme of sex and drug obsession does something to highlight the inherent absurdity and throws into relief something that is almost irrational. Maybe following a thread through to its’ logical conclusion is a way of exorcising certain ills, of ‘working it out’. There is something undeniably valid about this music, more because of the debased content than in spite of it. This music is far more ‘real’ than what passes for hip-hop these days. It forces the audience to confront the dreams and nightmares latent in suburban ghetto bedrooms, and a society freed of the restraints formerly imposed by Christian morality. And that’s thought provoking. Sewage Tapes Facebook

RAJA Remixes 2012 Mixtape // TRAP HOUSE

Astro Nautico just dropped this bomb of a remix tape by New York's RAJA. You should download it immediately here on Mediafire.  The tracks have been removed from Soundcloud, so don't wait. Here's a taste.