Ok, now bear with me. This a 2 for 1 special, a buy 1 get 1 free, linking some very different songs. Think of it as a musical connect the dots between rapper Danny Brown and indie band Preoccupations. The tissue tethering these jaw-dropping new songs? A relatively unknown U.K. experimental rock group called This Heat.
While all this sounds like a recent CompLit major trying desperately to flex his analytical muscles, there’s hard proof for such a connection. In an interview (when they were still known as Viet Cong), Preoccupations admit that they’re, “just trying to ape This Heat’s ‘Deceit.’” Meanwhile, Danny Brown sampled the band on his track “Adderall Admiral” from breakout mixtape XXX.
Although these linear trickles from the 80’s to now are comforting, it’s the least interesting impact This Heat has had on both artists. “Anxiety”, the new track from Preoccupations’ forthcoming album, builds from an ominous, nocturnal dirge reminiscent of “Makeshift Swahili.” Paul White’s production for “When it Rains” chugs on the urgency built from clattering, junkyard percussion not unlike “S.P.Q.R.”
These comparisons aren’t meant to strip Danny Brown or Preoccupations of their originality and genius. It’s an opportunity to revel. Preoccupations veer from traditional songwriting, incorporating mantras, distortion, and surprising melodicism into one tight package (as much as I love This Heat, have they ever written anything as gorgeous as the keyboard hook on “Anxiety”?). Danny Brown jitters with even more surprises. Who else is making rap that builds off such sustained tension (that eerie bass line could easily fit into a Preoccupations track)? The whole damn song we’re waiting for some catharsis, some easing of the mood. But the oddities don’t end there. Danny Brown randomly raps a bar through a flanger, horns poke in little syncopated bursts, and a vibraslap somehow becomes menacing instead of corny. The closest we get is the brief explosion of 2:47, when all the disparate elements seem to line up.
On the biting plod of “Cenotaph”, This Heat claim that, “history repeats itself.” I won’t argue with the political implications of their lyrics, but from a musical standpoint I need to interject a small caveat. Musical history bends and warps and is regurgitated like tape pushed through a mangled tape deck. “When It Rain” and “Anxiety” stem from such imperfections and accidents and unintuitive leaps. No wonder they’re two of the most transfixing tracks I’ve heard all year.
So listen to them together, mix them in a pot, and make your own concoction that lovingly mutilates the work that came before you.
P.S. is it just me or is it a little eerie that “Anxiety” and “When It Rain” came out within 24 hours of each other and both feature ghoulish videos with inverted colors…
Listen here and here. Images from here and here.
