Government Plates - Death Grips - Album Review

My writing, like the music Death Grips produces, is an acquired taste and hard to follow, this is my first review and the ramblings of a musical nerd, but I'm sure you'll keep up and understand as we venture into this vast landscape of obscure messages and fantastic discoveries. Oh, and Mr. West, take notes, this how dangerously derelict the underground world you're trying to replicate and exploit has become.

12 months of news, stirs and leaked footage prepared me for Government Plates, the launch of their record label "Third Worlds", abandoned gigs resulting in broken instruments and crowd riots, the "No Hands" series and a hilarious photoshopped image of the band standing with Beyonce Knowles & Robert Pattinson. Suddenly, I was blessed with news that the great experimental industrial alternative hip hop triad from Sacramento, California had released their latest album via various torrent and file sharing websites. Immediately I downloaded the record coming off of an RSA course and reminiscent listening of "OK Computer" on the car ride home (a second hand copy I bought from Paddy's for $5).

SIDE NOTE: If you haven't listened to "The Money Store" or "Exmilitary" mixtape, please educate yourself before you go wandering off into the wilderness without a map, flashlight or protection. This will be a strange and possibly uncomfortable experience for you if you're not prepared.

I generally like short albums, I don't prefer them but I can move onto other things. Although this was the case for "Government Plates" standing at a band record 35 minutes, I didn't move on from this album. I kept coming back to relive it and understand more from it. MC Ride is unforgiving and so are his lyrics, he shouts his twisted nightmares into a tin can and sometimes you can't tell if his words are melodic and significant or just another expressive source of musical input. But whatever it is, it's relevant to the tension and violence in the sound, a key element to their appeal, the rambling of a man constantly on the edge. Zach Hills drumming is about as tribal as you can get on a standard drum kit, not really progressive as in it sticks to a 4/4 beat laid, also serving as producer with other bandmate Flatlander, but he still manages to perform rolls and fills that make wide eyed underestimate the technical skill he portrays on a short track. Flatlander does all the samples and keyboard synth sounds that give off it's futuristic vibe, laser shooting it's way through the mix of every track you hear that makes you question the relevance and how it shouldn't work but does. They all work together to produce a sound that hasn't been discovered, when you listen to them play together it's special because it's really like nothing you've ever heard.

Let's get some tracks under discussion. Birds was released a bit earlier in the year but it's still easily my favourite track on the album. Like a child's fairytale poem sung by aliens ascending from a spaceship, and that seemingly out of place electric guitar refrain is a real treat. The opening track with one of the longest title's I've seen 'You might think he loves you for your money but I know what he really loves you for it's your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat' is energetic and the perfect opener for a Death Grips release. Feels Like A Wheel sounds like a mechanic M.I.A. on speed with hints to early Prodigy bangers. Other highlights were Anne Bonny and Bootleg. But the pièce de résistance is definitely the closer, Whatever I Want (Fuck Who's Watching) that switches between a pulsating early 90's techno beat that gives you wonderful reminiscence of the film Trainspotting to the dark drones and slow distorted drums that accompany the delayed and looped ramblings of MC Ride, plus Pitchfork gave it Best New Music and they take their music seriously over there.

The album has many things in it's favour, but I still have to say that The Money Store (one of their previous releases) still holds to be their finest work to date. The songs on Government Plates are reflective of their style but not as memorable as their other songs. What made The Money Store great was the hooks, an audience needs something to chant and it's hard to find great one-liners and hooks on a Death Grips track when the lyrics are distinctive to the style of a man who could've easily been an axe murderer in another life. The one hook I recognised "I'm on my way" from the song Two Heavens sounds like "I've got the fever" from The Fever (Aye, Aye). I'm Overflow sounds like a sweet demo but fleshed out into the awesome song it could've been. That's how I feel about half the album, these songs are missing something but I can't put my finger on it. The song Big House is also in the same boat in a way, I love the lyrics but it feels like two ideas for songs thrown together with no real intention. Also, a lot of texture is lost from The Money Store, which was so packed to the brim with samples and noise that it made a quite claustrophobic listening, it feels that on Government Plates they've given their tunes some more air to breath which doesn't look good written down but maybe that's what they were going for, I don't really know and no one does with this band. The album cover is pretty dull too. Their previous album cover was a better regarded and anticipated, and all it had was an erect penis for the cover.

One of my favourite releases this year, I found this to be an pleasurable experience. I went around to a friends place the other day to celebrate his birthday with a chill, which in a way is how I describe this release. Like having a friend around for dinner or a simple catch up on life, except this time we're not drinking or partying and having a night of it, we're just chilling on couches or in the sun, spending some time together and enjoying each others company. Good release and a real treat for fans.

Light to decent 7 out of 10.

Review by Patrick McKinnon

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