Track by Track is our recurring series where artists guide readers through each song on a release. Today, our May CoSign Lip Critic reviews their explosive debut album, Hexagonal distributor.
It's an important introductory point for Lip Critic, but it's worth repeating: How many punk bands have two drummers, no guitarists, and sound like they're creating one long, explosive, overwhelming electronic session? Virtually none, which is why Lip Critic has emerged with a sound that seems completely new.
The New York-based electro-punk quartet, who are also our May co-signers, have a penchant for drama and surreal humor. Their music is supercharged, but also deeply strange; Look no further than “In the Wawa (Convinced I'm God),” which takes the pedestrian circumstance of ordering a sandwich at a Wawa and presents it as a throbbing fever dream.
Get tickets to Lip Critic here
Even the band's responses to this track-by-track breakdown seem straight out of a long-lost dystopian fantasy series: take a look and you'll find mentions of cults, jokes, “Building a city out of Subway bread,” robbing a butcher shop. (in the song “Bork Pelly”) and playing with “farm animal DNA.” It may seem crazy to this group of young and restless musicians, but given the confidence, novelty and aesthetic unity of their sound, they are no strangers to embracing chaos.
His influences range from Slipknot and Andy Kaufman to Deerhoof and Death Grips, to video games and Soul Coughing, and a host of other left field options. Everyone enjoys equally eclectic touchstones, but vocalist Bret Kaser is a big reason these songs take such surreal forms.
“There is a line that runs through all [the songs]of absurdity and type of depravity,” says Kaser Consequence. “A lot of it has to do with pressing record and doing completely improvised versions of the songs, then going back and editing the improvisation… there's a lot of stuff to do. Monty Python-style thinking.”
Hexagon distributor It certainly presents a loose narrative, but even grasping the clues alone is a feat of imagination. Yes, there are a lot of Lip Critics, but it seems like fearless generosity.
stream Hexagon distributor below and read on for Lip Critic's track-by-track breakdown.
thanks to our partners at consequence.net
