Sometimes it’s okay to drink down some sugary pop; something that slips down easy and gives a short-loved energy boost. However, I’m ready, willing, and able to do some hard graft for my music fix. Moodie Black’s harsh take on rap might not be an instantly easy listen, but when I first heard previous single ‘To My Friends’ I felt an explosive rush from music teetering on the edge of collapse; hazardous but hypnotising, as it flooded my brain with screaming electronics, booming drums and doomed guitar.
So it is with new track ‘Warm For You’, which Moodie Black has given Joyzine readers the chance to experience before its official release. Field recordings and feedback swirl like a tornado in a gravel pit before tectonic drums start pounding relentlessly. A low guitar warps in the background joined by an out of tune riff that worms its way into your ears. Pleasure and pain side by side…and it’s glorious! And when Moodie Black starts to rap with that fabulously resonant voice, skating on the meniscus of the crackle-and-crunch of the backing, you welcome it like Dustin Hoffman welcomes oil of cloves in Marathon Man. The self-produced video is a fever dream of stuttering images that feature Moodie Black in various tableaus at home prowling, rapping, or dancing before ending up wandering in the desert, red dress popping against the stark landscape.
Rap has become so commoditised and highly produced that it’s genuinely refreshing when you hear artists on the fringes of the genre such as dälek, clipping, and Shapednoise. These auditory disruptors channel pain, anger, and raw emotion into their sonic landscape, not just the lyrics. Moodie Black, the performing name of Kristen Martinez, is a sorcerer supreme in the language of noise rap, a term I might argue is reductive as this is not simply rapping over noise but demonstrating true skill in constructing words and sound that take you to the edge of uncomfortable, weaving papercuts and vinegar and into a collage that is both compelling and alive. Moodie Black’s music is the red button you have to push despite the warnings.
Moodie Black: Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
LYRICS
Im raw as shot meat on the leaves
seen how it ends how we extend and bend the things that be
fangs from the desert block raised my own sacred flock
means i will never stop known for the things ive caught
anti famous the morals wet debate the painting
cornering idols in empty venues their puddles waiting
im mean watching like feeling awkward ive seen your movies
painfully stumbling over your feet and pushing through me
cant stop myself from enjoying filming of all your ego
I know paper evil work harder we poison all the people
from pesudo famous to hall of fame that i slept near
they start fires and say thing with no teeth here
im not the one my heart is wreck my fingers calloused
i tend the dirt look in your eye my human valid
i hold the lineage, the candle flickr.
i work the fields, im the tranny nigga.
the battery lodged into the couch
the one your siblings have forgot about
beyond jaded broken record and pleading out
confrational critic bias believer doubt
all my dresses, all my signal, skinwalkers
this is money not art white talkers
weak messages busted my hide into the summit
i tried to tell em they’d throw me off im not coming
they looked clean skin right and eyes placed
but so off cant speak or stand straight.
Review by Paul F Cook
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