Indie hip-hop trio's 'TV Love' has bite
Joseph Froemming
Issue date: 2/2/09 Section: Intermission
Restiform Bodies have taken America's love of cheap, low brow entertainment and throw it back at the people.
Their latest release, "TV Loves You back," is a beat driven slap in the face of American crass commercialism.
The band, formed of Passage, Bomarr and Telephone Jim Jesus, are all alumni of the Midwest indie hip-hop explosion that first began in the late '90s with labels such as Rhymesayers, Anticon and Mush.
This release is their second, but their debut for the Anticon label.
The album takes the listener on a crazed, hip-hop mind bender with the slickest beats to emerge from Anticon's roster.
The album begins with "Black Friday," which sounds like it is a live album with crowd cheering and vocal echoes and musical tinkering.
The track is a strong indictment of the biggest shopping day in the U.S. Claiming to be distracted by " all mall vision," and how there is "no romance in a business trance," the track is a middle finger to the day after Thanksgiving.
The beats on "Black Friday" are impressive, and give the track an upbeat feeling, which contrasts well with the lyrical content.
"A Pimp Like God" is another great track. Passage begins the track with a catch chorus before jumping into a lyrical backhand to idiots who glorify pimping as a positive thing in our culture.
The song "Customer Culture Wave" begins with weird computer blip sounds that are reminiscent of Radiohead's "Kid A" material.
The lyrics are about how consumerism is destroying nature and a seething insight on self-image with the lyrics "F--k like you have a reputation to uphold."
Passage has a unique voice for hip-hop. It is nasally, but not annoying like Eminem. He switches from flowing to singing, as does Bomarr.
Telephone Jim Jesus does a good job with the production. He makes the breakdowns a psychedelic freak out for the ears.
The music sounds like the '80s were thrown into a blender, then spewed out with solid beats and insane bass lines. It is not as good as their contemporaries in Neon Neon, but good enough for this album.
It is good to hear a hip-hop release from Anticon. The past few years they have been going toward more rock influenced music, and this is the first good hip-hop album released from them since Pedestrian's 2004 release, "Unindian Songs: Vol. 1."
The album is not without faults. The smooth and slick production does get to be too much after six songs in. It all starts to sound like the same song is being played.
The lyrics are impressive; blending politics with surreal imagery works well. Yet, they are not ground breaking in any sense.
The album ends with "Ameriscan," a song about how keeping people in a state of fear is a cancer in our society.
The track starts with sad, mournful sounding electric organ with depressive sounding vocals. It sounds like an epitaph for the American Dream.
"TV Loves You Back" is a decent album, interesting in parts but does not take hip-hop into some new direction.
It is 10 tracks long and the tracks clock in at an average of two or three minutes. Yet, this album is better than a lot of hip-hop out there, especially in comparison to what is on mainstream radio.
Anticon followers have been given a good hip-hop album, though not great. Restiform Bodies are tight, but leaving the listener for more content and some grittier musical moments.
Source: University Chronicle
