“Shame is not here to make friends.” Well duh, not with a name like “Shame”!
And, well, also not with a tape titled I
Don’t Like You – I probably should have flagged that first. Indeed, Shame,
the solo moniker of Abdul Hakim Bilal of Among the Rocks and Roots – whose Raga tape, also on Orb, floored the
bejeezus out of me when I first heard it – is as antisocial* a project as it
gets, opting for harsh, gristly noise at all costs in order to repel you from Bilal’s
presence. And honestly, why would Bilal want any of you in their presence? You’re
all a bunch of freeloading, whiny babies. Bilal is right to not want to have
anything to do with you.
But then there are the select few who get what Bilal's got going on, who
hear the outré sonic mayhem
and are pulled in, gravitating toward the center of the hellish concoction.
People like me. OK, listen up, gather round – you hear that oscillating static?
You hear those sampled shrieks? You withstanding that piercing feedback? You
resisting the demonic temptations of that buried whisper? You churning like
that pulverized cement? You becoming one with that barely tolerable pitch? You
frying on that flat-top stove?
GOOD!
I don’t like you either.
You can hang out though and listen to this. You’ve proven worthy of
remaining in Bilal’s presence, and that’s good enough for me.
*Well, I Don’t Like You isn’t
totally antisocial – the awesome Orb alum Samuel Goff makes an appearance on “Transmission
Dreams.”
https://orbtapes.bandcamp.com/
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