Title Fight – Hyperview (2015)

Title Fight – Hyperview

Maturation is a disease that afflicts plenty of bands, and quite often causes them to go down the road of mediocre albums and incur change of audience real fast. Nowhere is this more evident than on Title Fight’s latest album, Hyperview. Back in 2011, Title Fight made their name with their debut album Shed, released on the hardcore label SideOneDummy. Shed was a speedy little pop punk album that bore quite a strong hardcore influence, akin to bands such as Lifetime or Have Heart and it captured the hearts of critics around the United States. Shed wasn’t a huge commercial success by any means, but it did allow Title Fight to develop quite a reputation in the American punk scene. Their follow-up album Floral Green ditched a lot of the hardcore trappings and contained strong alternative rock and shoegaze overtones, which diluted their sound quite a bit. However, it still had the same fiery punk spirit and gritty production of their early work in order to satisfy their fans.

For Hyperview, however, Title Fight have mostly ditched whatever semblance of hardcore and pop punk remained in their music, choosing to dive face-forward into the world of shoegaze. The tracks on Hyperview echo with enough reverb and breathy vocals, it’d make Kevin Shields cry tears of joy. “Chlorine” is a nice jangly tune, that probably would have been a great hit on MTV’s 120 Minutes two decades ago. “Your Pain Is Mine Now” is arguably the centrepiece of the whole album, a beautifully melancholic cut that evokes the breezy shoegaze of acts such as Galaxie 500 or Lush. The production on Hyperview is undoubtedly slicker and less grittier than Title Fight’s previous recordings, however it seems as if the band relies too much on the production. Lead singer Jamie Rhoden appears to have given up the barking vocals of earlier releases, opting for a softer My Bloody Valentine-esque cooing vocal style, typical of shoegaze singers. Unfortunately, this schtick gets old real fast, as does the album itself. Once the first five songs finish, Hyperview quickly descends into bland, monotonous shoegaze wankery.

Compared to the raucous and blistering melodic-tinged hardcore of their earlier albums, Hyperview is definitely a much more gentle and softer affair, and it suffers due to this factor. The jangling riff that opens “Your Pain Is Mine Now” makes you wonder whether Title Fight are closet Smiths fanatics, and Rhoden’s vocals really make you question whether or not he’s been listening to too much Ride. “Trace Me Onto You” with its driving guitar and vaguely pop punk-e is arguably the closest Hyperview comes to catching the upbeat and energetic spirit of Title Fight’s earlier recordings, acting as a decent throwback in the last quarter, amid a sea of dull reverberated guitars and little to no drumming.The songs all sound pretty enough, but there’s not a whole lot of substance to them. You get the feeling that the band compromised on the songwriting, just to make the production sound better and more spectacular in the process. The majority of the songs don’t stick with you at all, the album just sort of floats off in its own cloudy haze, there’s nothing to really grab you at all. Even with shoegaze, you still need a decent melody or groove in order to hook the listener in, and James Brown’s decayed corpse would have more groove in it than the songs on Hyperview.

Whereas Floral Green was a nice compromise between the more mosh-friendly hardcore and introspective naval-gazing alt rock, Hyperview takes the latter. If you’re a fan of acts like Pity Sex or Citizen, who similarly put a more punk influenced spin on the traditional shoegaze formula, then Title Fight’s latest album should be right up your alley. However if you’re a die-hard fan of the band and miss their grittier music, there’s not much to like here I’m afraid. Evolving an established sound can make or break a band and in Title Fight’s case, I sadly think that is has hampered them quite drastically. You could make the argument that Hyperview’s sleeker and slightly more commercial-friendly sound benefits the group, as you could easily picture half the songs on here making an impact on commercial radio. However, if they have to compromise their original sound in order to grow and mature like that, what’s the point? Sorry Title Fight, you’ve lost me on this one.

5/10

Death Grips – The Money Store (2012)

Death Grips – The Money Store (2012)

(Editor’s note: This is an old review I posted on RateYourMusic back in late 2013. So if the writing sounds extremely amatuerish and cheesy, I apologise. Cheers!)

My only previous experience with Death Grips was with their 2011 Mixtape “Exmilitary” which I can only recall sounding absolutely terrible. Terrible rapping, shouted vocals, spastic production and utterly mundane samples are pretty much the only things I recall from it. Now that they’ve departed us, I feel that it’s only right for me to listen to their supposed magnum opus, 2012’s “The Money Store”. I remember Pitchfork, Tinymixtapes, Stereogum and pretty much every semi-reputable internet music website hyping the shit out of this at the time of its release. I never bought into the hype, partly because their aforementioned mixtape turned me off of their sound, and also due to their incredibly obnoxious fanbase, who rival Directioners in terms of dedication to their band.

Opening track “Get Got” seems off to a promising start. MC Ride’s angry hobo vocals from Exmilitary seem toned down a bit now. The production is very glitchy, and gives off the vibe of something Warp records would’ve put out if they’d had Genesis P-Orridge working for them. The Fever” has a pleasant sample looping around, but Ride’s vocals kind of turned me off again. “Lost Boys” gives off a large industrial vibe, but mixes it with a nice Portishead-sounding loop in the background. It’s easily the chillest sounding track on the whole album, although in the grand scheme of things that’s not saying much. “I’ve Seen Footage”, the bands most well known track is one of the standouts. It’s easily the most conventional sounding thing on the album, with a loud dancefloor-ready bassline and some semi-coherent lyrics . Whether that says more about Death Grips or my taste in music, I can’t tell. It sounds like it’d slot in well on a Club playlist. You could mix it inbetween Icona Pop and Yeezus-era Kanye West and literally no-one could tell the difference. Andy “Flatlander” Morin has quite the knack for production, coming across like Madlib if he absorbed a ton of Aphex Twin records.

Speaking of Aphex Twin, the opening to Double Helix gives me some serious “Richard D. James Album” vibes. Most of the tracks on this album are all under the 4 minute mark, thankfully. Whether this was due to artistic reasons, or their record label’s decision to tone-down Death Grips music I’m not sure, but I’m thankful for it as I can’t see these songs working past the 4 minute mark. “Punk Weight” starts out innocently enough, for the first 50 seconds, before this cute Kanye West-esque sample drops out in place for an obnoxious low-end bassline. This album is starting to sound like a bad grime album, with too much low-end bass and not enough kickdrum. Think Dizzee Rascal’s “Boy In Da Corner” album if you had Justice on the decks and Michael Gira helping out with the vocals, except much worse. The beats really start to grate on you by the end of the album, so I’m thankful for its rather short runtime. “Hacker” comes close to redeeming the album for me. The track pairs a glitchy house beat (complete with requisite thump kicks) along with some eerie, but downright hysterical lyrics from Ride (“I’m in your aaareaaa! You’ll catch a JPEG TO THE HEAD!”). Along with “I’ve Seen Footage” it’s one of my favourite tracks on the album.

I’m not a huge fan of this album. Even at a 41 minute runtime, the album still feels way too long. The song’s begin to give me a headache after the first 20 minutes, with the horrible vocals If you can handle the clatter, racket and clanging, then by all means go for it. As for me, I think I’ll stick to my Smiths albums, thanks.

4/10