Here’s a joke for you:
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
What do you get when you combine a math rock drummer and experimental
hip hop?
NAH’s Otheration cassette on
Protagonist Music!
Now that I’ve got your attention, let’s get a little more serious,
shall we? NAH is not a Gas offshoot (although I wish it was – I’m hankering for
a little Wolfgang Voigt right about now). No, indeed, it’s actually Mike from shoutalicious
math rockers 1994!, and the exclamation point there is intentional. Mike was
the drummer, not the guitar player, even though I know you’re air guitaring
sweet-ass finger runs as you read this, because you know what I’m talking
about. (Doodle-doodle-doodle-doo-doo, bwah!)
Yeah, Mike does a solo thing, and it’s pretty tight, at times reminding
me of Reservoir Sound maestro A.M. Breakups’s hip hop backing tracks. But NAH’s
not background to anything, you son of a bitch! How dare you suggest it. Just
because there are drums (and live ones, too) doesn’t mean Mike gets relegated
to mere “producer.” He’s an artist dammit.
But, uh, he does work with some rappers, actually. Like he does with
Givv, on “breathe, rest, dig, rule,” and it does indeed come off like a mix
between Death Grips (think “Birds”) and Elucid (another Reservoir Sound alum).
However, Otheration is mostly just
good ol’ Mike, and the rest could easily be mistaken for Tobacco demos – there
are the huge beats, gargly synths, and fuzzy fuzz that coats everything in
total grime. I mean, “vcrhigh” is pretty much the template for that sound. And
I have to be totally honest here – I’m an unabashed sucker for Tobacco and his
ilk. Meaning I’m also an unabashed sucker for what NAH’s slingin’. And that’s
no joke.
--Ryan “Terminal Velocity” Masteller
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