Death Grips- Bottomless Pit (2016)

Death Grips- Bottomless Pit (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

It would be hard to argue against the notion that Death Grips is one of the best things to happen to forward thinking heavy music in late years, that combination of abrasive Electronica, paranoid psychedelics, aggressive hip hop and unexpected beats, have made this powerful band a very original force to be reckoned with, volatile as their music is hard also to know if the band will be here for long, their controversial pass through the music business has been a wildly amusing experience, they have made the  music trade quite different, like a comet hitting the musical biz, they simply made it change direction with their impossible to contain delivery, raw aesthetics, the dodging dynamics, first unexpectedly signing with a major band, then braking up with them, embarking on a major tour, disbanding all of a sudden and next their mysterious return as if nothing happened before.

Bottomless Pit looks like the return of Death Grips to the battle sonic ground, compositional speaking is their most intense and daring record in years, even accustomed to the logics of the band, you cannot simply be ready to the killer attack of Giving Bad People Good Ideas (the story of my life?), noise rock is an immediate reference, hardcore beyond hardcore, with Burnett vocals sounding as rabid as always, inhabiting a place between pugilistic hip hop and chaotic hardcore punk (a perfect soundtrack for documentary Dawg Fight!), this time Andy Morin work is totally set loose, throwing impressive samples as choruses bouncing up and down, and giving the whole theme the feeling of a runaway train, with extraordinaire Zach Hill brutal and hyper kinetic magic behind the drums,  this time getting a little bit buried in the mix.

Death Grips again takes things to the extremes on the Jackson Pollock like musical explosion titled Hot Head, with drums at full speed, dazzling keyboards by Morin and Burnett exploring the dark alleys of his mind, the band sounds possessed by the idea of going to the total extreme sonically speaking, acting like a shotgun of sensorial ammunition aimed right to the brain of the listener, with other pieces like Spikes with robust synths and demonic altered vocals in such a way that would mae both Steve Reich and Dj Rashad proud at such a disconcerting aural assault to the senses, with Burnett growing like a giant, vocal line after vocal line.

Running out of gas after such an intense start, the band deviates into resounding, brutally heavy dubby hip hop on the perfectly titled Warping, or futuristic techno hip hop like on Eh, and then with Burnett free flowing over a piece of music sounding like noise terrifying giant Prurient at it's most cinematic.

The bass heavy BB Poison is another example of Death Grips again trying to find new ways of ruthless expression, Morin weighing really heavy in the mix, just before attempting to make DG a "little" more accessible on the more straight forward attack of Three Bedrooms in a Good Neighborhood.

Again sound explorations surface at the beginning og Ring a Bell, a compelling mix of sheer brutality, twisted use of melodies and Burnett unstoppable delivery, it would be difficult to tell if this is one of the best things DG has recorded in its bizarre existence, but Bottomless Pit is a wonderful example of music taken right to the extremes, making it impossible to ignore and besides being 13 songs long, leaving me with the mad desire of listening to it once again, Bottomless Pit is precisely a bottomless pit of ideas, once simple immersion is not enough to appreciate everything that's really going on.