Idiot Forever's "Boi Boi Insane" plays like a mix tape painstakingly created by a broken robot. If you are in anyway as sonically shell-shocked as I am, you know that this is, without a doubt, a huge compliment.
Side A plays to the creators sampling/electronic chops, with vibes spanning from spazzy chopped up drum beats, mixed together with more laid back synthy numbers. At times it's reminiscent of that era in 2009 when lo-fi electronic music was really interesting, way before some knucklehead music journalist coined the term "chillwave" and ruined everything. At other moments, it gives a weedy nod to modern hip hop, reminding us that trashy production is still as cool as it was when Rza was making beats in his basement.
Side B showcases a less cohesive mix of sounds and sonic spaces, but is all the more haunting as a result. It begins with sludgy and flanged out dub samples, and transitions into hissing and reverb drenched acoustic guitar numbers. It's moments like this when we're reminded that Josh Mackie (the man behind Idiot Forever) can really write a great melody. If you haven't heard his other band GUNK, I highly recommend their last album "Gradual Shove" as a companion piece to this tape.
The glory of the cassette release these days is that you can usually count on the contents being a bit (or a lot) on the weird side. "Boi Boi Forever" delivers on this promise tenfold. I also nominate track one as best use of a jamblock in 2014.
Extra cool points are awarded for the zine that accompanies this release, as well as the 20 minute video(?!) you can watch on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVCpQMZyyyQ
http://idiotforever.bandcamp.com/
http://www.sgmgrecords.com/idiot-forever.html
-- Josh Meakim