Bodies Rest; Mope Some Restiform Bodies’ Passage contemplates cynicism on TV Loves You Back. By Randy Harward
Passage, aka David Bryant, is at a physical, creative and personal crossroads.
Waiting for a light rail car, he wonders how he might save his relationship, forge a “real” career, become financially comfortable, and “find happiness all the while” making music on his own and with his band, Restiform Bodies. He ponders why, after a decade as a musician, the first date of the big tour is at a pizza parlor in Arcata, Calif. “Not that I’m ungrateful,” he says. With all that mental racket, it’s no wonder his music is a pastiche of white noise and Burroughs-esque cut-up sounds, like an analog radio dial spun from end to end of an all-inclusive, frequency modulated band.
On the group’s second album TV Loves You Back, Restiform Bodies—a trio completed by also-solo artists Telephone Jim Jesus (George Chadwick on synths, samples and effects) and Bomarr (Matt Valerio handling beats and percussion)—the group issues a scathingly sensitive indictment of bling culture and the American strip mall, what Bryant calls “network-trash life with a spiritual awareness in a funny, entertaining and genuinely positive way.” Restiform doesn’t really play to the Anticon label’s rep of supplying hip-hop and dance music that bucks their respective familiar characteristics.
On “Pimp Like God,” Restiform repeatedly pulls you in and out of a vintage 1980s new-wave groove and cold hip-hop burn.“Opulent Soul” mines the same decade, specifically something between Depeche Mode’s synth pop and Spandau Ballet’s crooning new romanticism, while also putting Eminem through a Digital Underground sieve and tossing in futuristic static, clicks and breaks. And you might say “Consumer Culture Wave” is hip-hop all the way through, talking about pussy and screwin’ “like you mean it … like you got a reputation to uphold,” but for the somnambulant sing-song rhymes.
Bryant says the Anticon typecasting is hotly debated, “one of those well-trodden areas” in the artist owned-and-operated label’s camp. Most of the acts, like Why?, Subtle, Odd Nosdam, SJ Esau Related content Chris Buttars' First Amendment ProblemBlackhole at Club VegasLoom @ Burt's Tiki LoungeForm of Rocket w/ Curtis Jensen & Levi RoundsLive Music This WeekendSubrosa at Burt's Tiki Lounge Related to:restiformhip-hopbryantsaysitsmusicthroughcynicism and Dosh, have been called “the hip-hop equivalent of post-rock”—the implication being that these artists appropriate hip-hop instrumentation and gear for purposes not originally intended. It’s not necessarily an accurate or fair description. “I do not consider Restiform Bodies to be post hip-hop,” says Bryant, citing Subtle and Themselves as better fits in that they use classic elements of hip-hop to “make great songs” and subvert the sound.
Restiform, he says, is electronic music and “definitely” hip-hop. However, if he has to call it anything, he’d choose “amateur slop or kids’ stuff or bad demos.”
Bryant’s low self-appraisal stems from other things he’s trying to figure out, yet somehow muddles through with some success. He knows the stylistic hopscotch can be considered bad business, but “I can’t sit before a piano and knock out a verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, verse, et cetera, from the same seat.” He admits a lack of skills and embraces his shortcomings. “I’d probably be more successful, but I do cherish that handicap because I find myself in places when writing songs without totally predictable options.”
It’s a suitable method by which to soundtrack “all this cynical material” and in doing so, make “a totally uncynical record.” But Bryant, ever the cynic, says Restiform didn’t even accomplish that much. “People get scared when you try to go about making ‘conscious’ art without cutting cynicism, so it found its way in. It’s one of my biggest regrets, letting the cynicism take over this record.”
I’ve been talking about Matt and Dave for a while now, so here’s the actual interview:
(KR) What inspires your song writing? Where do the concepts come from?
(Dave) Lately I’m writing songs people can connect to with less of an agenda. Things that activate on a human level… love, death, fun. Theme-wise that’s where I’m headed. TV Loves You Back I drew from really image heavy pop culture hilarious shit. I thought it was funny, but I think people took it too seriously
(KR) I HATED music theory and didn’t understand a minute of it… do you guys get into and/or study that type of thing or does this all come naturally?
(Dave/Matt) Neither one of us read music. Sometimes people go to school and develop disdain for something they once loved… unfortunately, it can become a technical educational pursuit.
(KR)Do you love all music or is there some you hate?
(Dave/Matt) Yeah, we like all music. It’s not my intention to isolate anyone ever or to say someone isn’t cool. I don’t play that game…. except for Kenny G.
(KR) Is fashion important in your lives? Favorite designers???
(Dave/Matt) I really like American Apparel. I wear tons of it. I like RVCA, too. Fashion should be visually entertaining… Matt rocks this terrible Christmas sweater sometimes.
(KR) Nice, I love that. You have some Aliases like Passage (Dave), Bomarr (Matt)…. Where do the these nick names come from?
(Dave/Matt) We initially wanted a traditional hip-hop vibe way back when we started making music. Bomarr is Matt’s pseudo last name and Passage is the idea that I was one little literary passage. One phrase of of a larger text.
(KR) Is there anything else you guys are working on at the moment?
(Dave/Matt) We’re working on a project called “TLDR”…Bat rays as well. Matt’s curated the sneakmove “minicomp vol 3″, which are a series of 7 inches that the label has been doing, featuring artists doing 1-minute songs. I’m working with a pop label out of Phoenix called Modern Art Records on a project called Brothers Backword. It’s Myself, Mike Busse and Ryan Breen who’s a part of this band called Back Ted n’ Ted. It’s kinda like Beastie Boys for the twenty first century. And We’re working with the producer from Inner Party System.
“Sex and consumption are parts of my life,” notes Passage dryly. Is he boasting or lamenting? “I smoke and eat too much, money burns a hole in my pocket, and there is no such thing as too much sex.”
The answer’s still unclear, but fitting coming from the voice of Restiform Bodies. The Oakland-based trio—rounded out by producers Bomarr and Telephone Jim Jesus (each a solo artist in his own right)—have just released TV Loves You Back, an album of wild sonics (art, rap, pop, noise) that drips with neon-ugly imagery from the era of the overfed attention span. But the album isn’t so much the antithesis of your gossip girls and weekend vampires as it is the indifferent warning label glued to the corner of the pack.
“I’m as much an example of our culture as a critic,” Passage continues. “I live a very domestic little life—there’s no dumpster diving or bike culture in my repertoire, and I think peace marches in San Francisco are redundant.”
That said, Restiform’s third record is anything but a succumbing to the lull of complacence. To the contrary, the characters caught in its innards—mall shooters, QVC shoppers, video game kids, brand whores, cancer patients and the narrator himself—all seem to be caught up in the same struggle: trying to stay human amidst the chaos.
“I do believe consumerism is fucked and we should all walk to work and stop eating garbage,” he says, “but media-conglomerate-owned or not, genetically modified or big-box bought, made in China or here in the U.S. of A, death waits.”
Thus, we submit to you the chorus of “Consumer Culture Wave,” delivered on album in admirable deadpan: “Fuck like you mean it, Timmy.”
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.
2008 was a disappointment for rap fans. What wasn't hipster-ready sneaker-hop or dance-craze incitement was more fodder from a mainstream that flirts with artsiness, but still can't deliver us from singles. Well, beneath all that blinding marquee glare, someone was shining a light. After a seven-year hiatus, deconstructionist rap trio Restiform Bodies returned with TV Loves You Back, an album benefiting from aural ADHD, with the thematic content to match. Over a score that whips ghettotech, crunk, and Gary Numan into an erratic frenzy, rapper Passage abstractly expounds upon shopping-mall shootings, restless-leg syndrome, market crashes, and—in the album's recurring theme—impotence caused by overdosing on television. The latter is a fairly direct half-metaphor for the effects the boob tube has on ambition, but the delivery makes this record more than a summation of Western postmillennial anxieties. Passage's verses are hailstorms of cyberized imagery and sarcastic poetry, while producers Bomarr and Telephone Jim Jesus skip art-hop subtlety for beats that bang. TV Loves You Back looks forward, and the view is empowering and a little disturbing. By the record's end, on an epic called "Opulent Soul," the narrator reclaims his masculinity: "I'm in the house of fractions before twinkling Oakland / hand-fucking myself into the great wide open." Finally, a dance craze everyone already know the moves to.
1 Flying Lotus : Los Angeles 2 cirKus : Laylower 3 Leila : Blood, Looms & Blooms 4 Autechre : Quaristice 5 Beck : Modern Guilt 6 Deschannel : They Know Nothing, They Recite ! 7 Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words : Lost In Reflections 8 Baltic Fleet : Baltic Fleet 9 Parkside : Cables 10 Restiform Bodies : TV Loves You Back
Restiform Bodies: TV Loves You Back [Anticon; 2008] Rating: 7.1
California is a big state. And hip-hop aficionados, with their firm sense of place, tie Oakland to a unique style of rap that bears little resemblance to its famous counterpart in Los Angeles. The brightest lights of the Bay Area, E-40 and Too $hort, never fully bought into the dark, trigger-happy sensationalism of the Death Row artists: Guns simply weren't part of their vision of, or path to, the good life. Emphasizing the joy of letting loose, the hyphy movement that sprang up a few years ago only cemented the scene's drama-free outlook. But Oakland's Restiform Bodies are agitators. And what better place for this hall of modest fame-- the indie-rap supergroup of Passage, Bomaar Monk, and Telephone Jim Jesus-- than Anticon? Their debut on the label, TV Loves You Back, presents a furious, righteous, and not entirely subtle dissatisfaction with capitalism. Thanks to the recent tumult in the world's markets, the album, like the DNC platform, has an added punch of timeliness. To be fair, mindless consumerism is more the target here than, say, overly leveraged banks. In short, the rappers mount their attack on low culture, not high finance. "Consumer Culture Wave" suggests a fight-the-Man mission with its title. Luckily, the song is better than that, too gloriously strange and oblique to be pressed into the service of jam-band leftism. (Love and gender seem to be the real subject, anyway.) Better to revel in the fluorescent textures and spastic rhythms, an accurate evocation of life in the attention-deficient multimedia slipstream, than to grope for political provocations in the lyrics. After all, it would have sufficed to attack QVC in only one song, you'd think. Docking too many points here isn't fair, anyway: Laid out on the page, even the best songs forfeit their essence. But when you spit nonsense with the apocalyptic ferocity of El-P, in many ways the hyperpolitical white rapper's template, that nonsense may as well be scripture. Ever eager to disquiet, the Bodies even stoke the listener's anxieties about machines (on the sludgy, horror-string-laced "Pick It Up, Drop It") and modern medicine ("Ameriscan"). If there's a paranoid style in American hip-hop, this may be its purest expression. Nodding to the post-Thanksgiving virus that turns the lanes of Wal-Mart into the Ben-Hur chariot race, "Black Friday" bounces between drum'n'bass speed and trip-hop languor to manic-depressively link consumerism and domestic life. That the Bodies lean on everything from the New Romantics to crunk to post-rock to ghettotech to paint this cultural self-portrait only amplifies the strangeness-- and accuracy-- of TV Loves You Back. "Movies are for entertainment," Louis B. Mayer famously stated. "If you want to send a message, send a telegram." The role of art isn't quite that narrow, of course, but the legendary producer knew that audiences didn't want to be lectured. And sadly that's what a lot of independent rap does. The Restiform Bodies avoid this. As Passage put it: "All the information on TV Loves You Back is stuff I'm trying to make peace with as a person, and that I think we all have to make peace with as a society." That sums up why the record is not only digestible, but outright luscious. We're not watching a presentation or reading a complaint. We're not being condemned for watching "The Hills". We're living, for a YouTube minute, inside three minds warped and wracked by our national addiction to the screen. It's equal parts unsightly and arresting in the way that most pathologies are.
Top Ten of the Year 2008 Restiform Bodies - TV Loves You Back CD (Anticon)
If hip-hop is redundant in 2008, doesn’t that make post-rap beyond redundant? Honestly, there are dozens of reasons to hate TV Loves You Back: the over-convoluted rhyming; the “ironic” '80s pop sounds; the token splashes of smarty-pants electronica; the lapses into dumb-as-fuck puerility; the unforgivable misogyny; the constant harping on about the evils of mass-media consumerism; the "zany" photo shoots...
And yet I keep coming back to it. How could something so hard to like be so hard not to love? More than likely, it's just a beautiful mystery but if I had to hypothesize a couple of scientific explanations, I'd go with: (a) complicity and (b) realization.
Complicity, then. The fact that TV Loves You Back constitutes an unrelenting 45-minute attack on the corrosive influence of TV and consumer culture could - and to some extent does - make it bit of a wearing listen. The thing that makes it bearable is that it's a story told from the outside moving in. Structured as a true concept album, it starts with third-person hectoring and moves inexorably towards first-person despair. The impression one is left with is that Restiform Bodies genuinely love TV - it's themselves they can't stand. I couldn't disagree more with the PopMatters review of this album - there's no distance here; no judgement. There's complicity.
Then, realization. Restiform Bodies have been waaayyy off the radar for years, so they've had plenty of time to craft a tight set of songs. And holy crap have they ever succeeded! The lyrics are incredibly dense with horrifically vivid imagery, the tunes are insanely catchy and the songs are all ingenious multi-part constructions. Nothing is meaningless here and nothing is left to chance. "Opulent Soul" is the Song of the Year and "Interactive Halloween Bear" isn't far behind.
In fact, this might have been in the running for Album of the Year if it wasn't for all that stuff that I just can't forgive - not least the icky (ironic?) misogyny of "A Pimp-Like God". If these guys could stop thinking with their dicks, they'd probably take over the world.
Restiform Bodies TV Loves You Back (Anticon : 2008) 73 Posted on 12/01/2008 Restiform Bodies is vocalist David Bryant, percussionist Matt Valerio and synth man George Chadwick. I know, I know. You’re thinking wait a minute; a restiform body is a lateral and larger subdivision of the inferior cerebellar peduncle located on the dorsolateral aspect of the medulla oblongata and composed of a variety of fibers, including, but not limited to, olivo-, reticulo-, cuneo-, trigmeno- and dorsal spinocerebellar! And you’re right. But, despite the interests of the biologists and brain surgeons among us, it just makes more sense for me to discuss the musical group’s recent release, TV Loves You Back, rather than offer an exciting and informative dissertation on human physiology.
To gain an appreciation of the album’s aesthetic, just imagine Trent Reznor, fresh off his umpteenth viewing of Fight Club, doing a synth-laden hip hop album detailing society’s preoccupation with consumption, sex and self-destruction. Tracks like “A Pimp-like God” and “Foul,” where Bryant rhymes, “my dick stay dizzy like a busy bayonet,” advance the band’s theory that these things often go hand in hand. Tracks like “Bobby Trendy Addendum” and “Consumer Culture Wave,” beckon audiences to, “fuck like you mean it,” in hopes that the mere act of intercourse will guide us farther away from searching for satisfaction by purchasing shit and bring us more in touch with our humanity. Nevermind that the act of intercourse is oftentimes itself reduced to nothing more than an act of economic opportunism.
Aside from what seems to be Restiform Bodies’ belief that we can screw our way to utopia, there’s a latent contradiction here. Like it or not, they’re part of the society they disparage. In an effort to fully express their disdain, necessity required that they study the object of their scorn thereby making them consumers too. But it seems that, as long as you’re willing to take home the strobelite honey you met in the club and pleasure her with reckless abandon, you’re okay in their book.
Planning to enter the Restiform Bodies remix contest? You have some big shoes to fill, now that this reworking from the Lazer Sword boys has just arrived. Suffice to say, this electronic-heavy version of "Interactive Halloween Bear," from RBs' recently released TV Loves You Back, is suited for only the darkest and dirtiest of venues, where the quaking bassline could potentially knock your drink onto the floor. And whoever came up with that track title is an undisputed genius.
With all due respect to Kool Keith and Cannibal Ox, Restiform Bodies are one of the weirdest, oddball hip-hop groups on the map. Consider song titles like “A Pimp-Like God” and disturbing lines like “My dick gets busy like a busy bayonet” on “Foul” from the group’s new album, TV Loves You Back, and you start to get a picture of the outfit’s experimental, nothing’s-sacred approach. Icy noises and acid-tinged synths — think Diplo on mescaline and given Brian Eno’s laptop — all dovetail with the complicated, ultra-dense rhyme schemes and super-rapid-fire delivery. All we can conclude is that Restiform Bodies is spitting on ghettotech and its offspring and coming up with their own dark, abstract vision of blistering post-crunk.
CD Review: Restiform Bodies, TV Loves You Back (Anticon.)
Oct 22, 2008 1:53 PM
Pushing beyond hip-hop conceptions Apparently no one told Passage, Telephone Jim Jesus and Bomarr how hip-hop is supposed to sound. Reuniting for a second LP, they mash up bits of crunk bass and hyphy snares with new-wave synths and rugged guitars, and they make it sound good. With "Black Friday" jumping to double-time jungle, and "Pick It Up, Drop It" working piercing synthesized strings, the uneasy beats induce tension but prove to be ideal bases for lyrical critiques of the opulent American culture. The outsider approach proves hip-hop lacks limits, while the pointed lyrics hit as hard as the beats.—Noah Levine [4 out of 5 stars]
C'est apparemment l'année des gros retours, après de bien longues absences. On ne va pas tous les citer, même si ceux de Portishead ou Leila viennent directement en tête. Pour le coup, il y a, sur 2008, tellement de bons disques émanant de groupes "confirmés" que l'on n'a presque plus le temps de se pencher sur les nouvelles pousses, celles qui débarquent en catimini pour nous refiler un premier essai éclatant, façon découverte-totale-featuring-grosse-mandale. Les Restiform Bodies avaient balancé il y a 7 ans un album complètement allumé reflétant encore la quintessence du son Anticon, avec ce Hiphop electro expérimental oscillant entre le débile jouissif et l'hermétisme compact. Pourtant l'album ne fut pas, au départ, officiellement affilié à la fourmi noire. Reste que ce Re$tiform Bod1es avait permis au groupe de poser leurs bagages sur le label, laissant le projet collectif de coté pour aligner de très bons albums en solo, celui de Passage (voix du groupe) en tête, ou le dernier Telephone Jim Jesus (sur lequel Bomarr, le troisième larron, est pas mal présent).
Annoncé en grande pompe sur le site du label il y a quelques temps, entre des sorties de plus en plus éloignées du son originel de la maison, ce Tv Loves You Back semblait bien parti pour nous refoutre une bonne tranche de bordel Anticonien, d'une façon bien plus frontale que le dernier Sole, qui avait décidé d'embrasser (ave brio) une veine plus acoustique...
Couleurs criardes, dessins de gamins partout dans le livret, ce dernier ayant le mérite de nous proposer tous les textes du disque. Ce qui est une excellente initiative, au vu de la complexité de certains lyrics, qui seraient presque à ranger aux coté de ceux de Subtle and co. Il fau être clair, ce Tv Loves You Back est une galette clairement inclassable, et cela dans toutes les facettes qu'elle met en avant : Outre les textes parfois abscons déclamés par Passage, c'est bien la voix de ce dernier qui pourra surprendre. Groupe à lui tout seul, le Californien change de flow comme de chaussette, alternant sur trois phases majeures, au sein même d'un morceau : d'une voix ronde et grave, le Mc va très souvent passer à un flow incisif et aride, scandant ses lyrics avec véhémence. Mais il est très courant que Passage se mette à chanter d'une voix claire, et pas désagréable (contrairement à 98% des Mc s'essayant à l'exercice), donnant un coté Pop à des morceaux souvent complètement flingués. Mais si cette livraison est inclassable, c'est aussi grâce aux instrues fignolées par Telephone Jim Jesus et Bomarr. On passe du coq à l'âne sans prévenir, on balance un morceau super accessible pour le défoncer par une Mpc hystérique quelques secondes après et l'on alterne passages debilo-jouissifs et atmosphères sombres et cradingues.
Le premier titre du disque ne pourrait pas mieux introduire et représenter ce qui va suivre sur ce Tv Loves You Back. Dans la grande tradition du morceau foutraque qui semble compiler plusieurs bouts d'instrues, Black Friday, se pose en modèle du genre. "Hey sympa, il envoie bien ce teaser !" "Non mais c'est la première piste du disque là" "Ah...euh... t'es sur ?". La première partie du morceau est très hip-hop de stade, avec un beat lourd, un Passage qui lance des Yo / Yeah bouffés par des échos et le passage chanté est presque pimp. Saturations, parasites, la ligne rythmique se nécrose, et part dans un trip presque Autechrien, sorte de breakbeat explosé, mutant, entité incontrôlable. Passage est toujours aussi content, il rappe sans discontinuer sur une instrue qui fait "scrrriiiiittchhhfiiiizzprrouuulipfouuublupblupkataklakkataklak" le tout défoncé par un pied bien sourd. On étouffe, mais c'est cool car une nappe sombre et inquiétante finie le boulot, transportant le morceau dans une electro de cimetière placé sur l'anneau de Saturne. Le tout en trois minutes. Schizophrénie musicale, cela intéressera les médecins.
Que l'on rassure les estomacs sensibles, les montagnes russes du disque ne seront généralement pas aussi accidentées. Les morceaux, bien barrés, restent généralement construits, et préfèrent développer une idée folle sur une piste plutôt que 5 en deux minutes. Restiform Bodies se permet même d'aligner des petits tubes tout le long du Lp. Des tubes drogués, mutants, foireux et complètement flingués, mais des tubes quand même. Foul prend presque le contre-pied de son voisin psychotique du dessus, en partant sur une base presque limpide : Grosses nappes de synthés bien grasses, beats ronds, éclatants comme un enfilade de bulles de savon, et Passage qui alternent phrasés secs imparables avec quelques excavations plus réfléchies. On croirait presque à de la ghetto-tech passée à la moulinette. Mais c'est les refrains qui propulsent le titre sur MTV alien. Le mec se met à chanter en regardant la lune, soutenu par des claviers conviés à faire une bronca des grands jours, mi-hip, mi-pop, le tout saupoudré d'un semblant de New-wave. Ca passe parfaitement, à mettre dans sa voiture, la fenêtre ouverte et les lunettes de soleil sur le front, juste avant de se faire interner dans son hôpital favori. (A choisir en fonction des plateau repas.) La dernière partie chantée est superbe, cristalline, concluant parfaitement le tout. Pour schématiser, on a un peu l'impression d'entendre Depeche Mode se faire chahuter par un Mc en train de se noyer dans sa baignoire. Même Tarif pour A Pimp Like God, qui aligne une entrée débile, presque niaise ( "A pimp like goooooood needs all his gold on his mouuuuuth / A pimp like god ain't equipped to settle dooooooown" ), avant de fracasser le tout sur une instrue sourde, poisseuse, aux basses bien rebondies, et de repasser sur un refrain bien saturé. Ca n'arrête pas de changer, le métronome s'emballe pour se stopper net quelques secondes après, et Passage est affolant, alignant des phrases juste inconcevables avec un aplomb énorme : "I'm the frostiest funkiest feather haired customer / Slick as a freudian slip, crisp as a cucumber / As handsome as a carriage on my pay as you go / You know i'm fronting but i'm obligated legally to let you know". Merci pour les métaphores, on les garde dans un coin.
Dans une veine plus sérieuse, mais tout aussi explosée par les aspérités, Panic Shopper balance du lourd. L'entame du morceau fait même assez penser à du Sole ancienne période : Flow grave et haché, teintes sombres et rythmes en retrait, toujours près à nous gicler à la gueule. Mais le tout prend vite son envol quand un synthé très analordien vient se greffer au tout, donnant un ton melancolico-mortuaire à des textes encore plus indéfinissables, à base de "It's not a well preserved pre historic bird / It's a 747 Behaeded nursing seven sorched feathers / ... / A pirate on the carpet licks the legs of the Cadaver / A pirate on the carpet licks the legs of the Cadaver / Cadaver abra ca dabra cadaver cadaver cadaver ! / Abra ca dabra cadaver" Moui t'es gentil, prends bien tes médicaments. Et ce n'est pas la suite du titre qui nous ramènera sur des terres plus saines, vu que Passage va littéralement s'envoler sur une montée fantomatique, lâchant ses lyrics à la vitesse de la lumière, arguant la foule comme un illuminé au milieu de Central park.
Bobby Trendy Addendum fera lui presque penser à du dDamage, explosant dans tous les coins, écrasant des semblants de samples sous des effets crasseux et saturés. On perçoit des notes de claviers accueillantes au milieu du marasme, donnant un semblant de mélodie sur lequel on pourra se raccrocher quelques instants, aidé par un Passage qui se décide à pousser la chansonnette un petit coup, avant de repasser en mode cintré du micro. La deuxième partie sera plus traditionnelle, avec un beat clairement plus identifiable et quelques handclaps cramés. Rassurant, ça permet enfin de put ses hands dans les air, même après avoir perdu tout son liquide rachidien. Plus direct et moins bousillé (toute proportion gardées), Restiform Bodies donnerait presque sa vision du Hip-hop calibré tube avec Pick It Up Drop It, au tempo ralenti et vrilles de claviers. On se fera plaisir quand le rythme s'accélérera méchamment replaçant le titre dans des espaces un peu Ghetto-tech évoquées plus haut.
Mais on sentait la chose perler sur certains refrains (voir couplets) du disque, Passage aime chanter, donner de l'air à des pistes parfois asphyxiantes niveau lyrics déclamés en tgv (les textes d'un morceau tiennent parfois sur une page et demi, en double colonne ). Il devient donc presque naturel de croiser sur ce Tv Loves You Back quelques morceaux où le flow passe au second plan, pour laisser le Mc susurrer au micro des litanies bizarres, à l'instar d'un certain DoseOne. Si Opulent Soul jonglera constamment avec un Hip-hop âpre et des phases chantées étonnantes, comme si Passage se dandinait sur le comptoir d'un bar une bouteille à la main, deux autres titres s'engouffreront dans une brèche périlleuse mais foutrement bien négociée : Le bien barré Consmer Culture Wave verra Passage ralentir son débit au maximum pour se la jouer hip-hop chanté sur une instrue pétant les plombs, entre synthés bien gras et accélérations de rythme claquant comme un fouet. On sent que le truc veut s'emballer, veut sauter dans les coins, sans pour autant prendre réellement l'initiative. C'est vraiment Ameriscan qui poussera le vice au maximum, en laissant Passage miauler sur un lit de synthés, martelés par un beat industriel très étouffé, placé à quelques kilomètres de là. Surprise, c'est super beau, on pensera presque à un ersatz de Thom Yorke reconverti en Mc qui s'essayerait à la New Wave droguée. On aura bien un versant Hip-hop bien convulsif sur trente secondes, mais c'est vraiment ces passages lunaires, en apesanteurs, dénués de toute envie d'expérimentation, qui prendront nos tripes pour en faire de la confiture. La montée finale file la frousse, et conclue l'un des meilleurs morceaux de la galette, alors qu'il s'en détacherait presque complètement sur la première écoute. On était presque convaincu d'assister à une tentative maladroite du groupe pour se la jouer Why ?, et l'on se retrouve devant une superbe conclusion, presque inattendue après un album aussi barge et accidenté.
Ce Tv Loves You Back est une tres bonne surprise. Pour ses qualités évidement, et ses compositions complètement barrées, inclassables et versatiles, avec une marque electro extrêmement présente, et un Passage complètement dingue, impressionnant quand on le compare au premier disque du groupe, et qui se posant désormais comme l'un des meilleurs dingo du label de San Francisco. Mais ce disque fait aussi plaisir car il prouve qu'Anticon peut encore nous sortir le Hip-hop qui reste, dans l'inconscient collectif, sa marque de fabrique, sa matière première. Attention, le label a sorti d'excellent disques ses derniers temps (Le Odd Nosdam, le Sole, le Why ?, le Thee More Shallows) mais cela faisait pas mal de temps qu'il n'y avait pas eu, au final, de véritables disques Hiphop Anticon. Comme si après avoir tourné en rond, le label ne voulait plus se risquer de tomber dans une redite, voulant pousser à l'ouverture exagérée, en laissant les fondations aux vestiaires.
Alors évidement, ceux qui ne pouvaient pas blairer cette marque de fabrique ne pourront toujours pas encadrer ce nouveau disque des Restiform Bodies. Quand à ceux qui ont justement peur d'une redite, qu'ils se rassurent, ce Tv Loves You Back prouve que l'on peut étonner, dérouter, faire du neuf avec une recette déjà bien utilisée, sans pour autant regarder une seconde en arrière. Ceux qui ressentaient un manque de Hiphop barré au vu des dernières sorties des labels tel que Anticon, Mush ou autres seront aux anges. Il ferait presque même de l'ombre au tout dernier Subtle, pour ceux qui ont été déçu de voir le groupe définitivement foncer dans une Pop bizarre.
Bref, ce disque fait énormément plaisir, il est bien jouissif, bien barré et reflète le meilleur de ce que peut encore fournir le label dans sa facette Hiphop. On ne lui ne demandait pas plus.
Restiform Bodies are the newest of Oakland’s infamous label Anitcon (home to Why? Dose One, Subtle, Themselves + more…) and it all began in New Hampshire. “I started free styling and deejaying to a wall in my room and then bought a sampler and disc recorder and that’s how it all started.” Says Passage, one of the 3 members of Restiform Bodies, whom I have had a chance to dialogue with… “We all grew up together… met around grade 9… got into trouble, took drugs, drank a lot in basements, ignored high school etc. Then we got really into hip hop.”
Currently the group is touring with label-mates Why? In time to promote their new album “TV Loves You Back” and they are stopping all along the west coast of Canada and the US and will be playing at Richard’s on Richards tonight (October 2) for their Vancouver BC show. The 3 began their music pursuit in 2000, “We jacked a swimming pool full of obvious loops, half free styled a demo and found a mega nerd neurology term from a medical text book, folded tape inlays and drove 16 hours to Cincinnati for Scribble jam… We hooked the anticon guys up with tapes and jacked like a gaggle of teenage girls.” It wasn’t until recently that Anticon put out said Restiform Bodies album. “Once we figured out what email was, and that the people we were listening to were a molecule away from the people Bomarr traded tapes with online, the Atak underground hip hop empire, all roads pointed toward anticon.”
After leaving the east coast in 2000 to explore the scene on the west coast, the 3 became nicely situated in the Oakland music scene. “Oakland is all about small venues… dual functioning gallery/venue spaces… Oakland based music, bands etc… I don’t know what to mention that isn’t pretty under-whelming with the exception of a handful of cool electronic acts like Eats Tapes, Bleachy Bleach, MNDR. Across the bridge there’s some more awesome shit going on, our favorite of course being Lazer Sword… Anon Day is another SF artist on our hit list.”
Restiform Bodies take an original spin on old school hip hop vocal dubs and heavily electronic beats that will really heat up a room. They are a tad obscure but have a very tasteful way of representing underground hip hop culture and making it more of a bastion than a trend. When listening to ‘TV Loves You Back’ it’s hard to assume who influences their sound, “In high school we listened to a lot of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Aphex Twin, Crass, Depeche Mode, Sub Humans, Brian Eno, Amon Tobin and tons of old acid house and electro.” Now they peer over to liking/ admiring Hot Chip, Lil Wayne, The Cool Kids, Magnetic Fields, LCD Soundsystem, and Jay Reatard. “That’s the stuff we love and respect, stuff we’d give up limbs to open for, remix… you know.”
Machines make it possible, since the grunt work (other than a slew of lyrics) is carefully compiling new sounds from ‘Ableton Live’ music software that allows you to multi-task instruments/ synths live to loop and sample.) After filing through gear and selling off cheapie samplers and drum machines for rent money it left them fixated with some real treasures. “Personally, I’ve settled on two really powerful Wavetable synthesizers, one being the Waldorf Microwave XT and an Access Virus TI… Right now we’re using a drum sampler program called Battery 3 made by Native Instruments in our live set, for a lot of the drums and percussion triggering that Bomarr’s doing.”
For these tour dates only 2 members of Restiform Bodies will be performing (Passage and Bomarr). “Telephone Jim Jesus the third member of the group was not available to play these shows with us, so his parts are canned on audio tracks. We DJ those parts, synced via fire wire and MPC with one of the synths I mentioned which helps to automate some of the impossible for two people elements of the songs.” Although it’s a duo act the show is supposedly really amazing and it sounds like the 3 really know their gear inside and out to be able to multitask the wiring of music alongside hybrid vocals. “…everybody should come see it (the live show)… it’s exactly what it needs to be for us right now. We wanted to represent the new record almost in full and as closely as possible.”
There has been a lot of enhancement from their first set of demos to their Self Titled album to the current album, ‘TV Loves You Back.’ “…it’s all generative sounds, no samples. The songs more song-like, though they still have dramatic changes in weird places, but they have choruses! Or at least my version of choruses. The lyrics are better, which honestly doesn’t take much considering how ridiculous I feel they used to be. It’s all together more grown up and danceable I hope.”
The 3 have toured their music nationally and internationally and there can be some pretty seriously crazy things that happen. “I flew without a passport post 9/11 through two countries in flip flops (don’t even) with a trash bag… smelling like a refugee. I mean I was on a plane… I didn’t flap my arms, but I made a terrible reputation for us in Scandinavia. I regret that part of it, but the overall experience was a turning point in my life. Plus we saw Iggy and The Stooges. That was just amazing.”
The 3 have sure put the time, work, gear and heart into their music and it prevails. It can be considered many things but overall it should be considered extremely good. “It’s rap music with a distinct electronic/industrial/ dance influence, or weirdo hip hop… this is just what we know how to do best. I’m a better emcee than I am a singer. Though I’m a better singer than I am a waiter, so hopefully shit works out.” [...]
Restiform Bodies by laurent the laurent on October 22, 2008
Restiform Bodies, a three piece indie hip hop act from Oakland comprised of Passage, Telephone Jim Jesus, and Bomarr, have recently put out their long awaited sophomore album on anticon. entitled TV Loves You Back. This album throws analog synth, tape loops, samples, indie rock, and hip hop into a toxic blender and spits out bright neon mind splatter. Sometimes sounding like El-P, sometimes sounding like Depeche Mode, it’s taken me a while for me to get my head around what’s going on on TV Loves You Back. I don’t think I have still. Without a doubt I enjoy it, or I would have turned it off long ago, and it still seems to be spinning throughout my current rotation. Why don’t you give it a pulse, chop, or puree and let me know what you think.
Restiform Bodies: Live at Bottom of the Hill [...] Restiform Bodies: I was stoked to catch this after two of their tracks landed on our site (one original and a killer Tobacco remix). Their strength is throwing the standards of hip hop all out of balance, speeding shit up and slowing it down, pushing Dave Bryant into verses twice as long as the standard 16 bars, then throwing it back to beat-maker Matt Valerio for an extended break featuring two or three tweaks in a row. Blissfully, you don't ever really get what you expect. There's a lot in the delivery of this project that reminds me of Aesop Rock's dense, hyper-ordained style, maybe if that style was wearing baggy clothes and sunglasses because it didn't want to be recognized in public. One: the beats have their own erratic and shifting charm that Restiform Bodies could easily hold its eight as an instrumental outfit (this was especially apparent in the portions of the show where the beats and glitches went long-form). Two: Dave's lyrics alternate between biting condemnation of consumer culture and coy self-depreciation; he delivers everything with a smirk, and that smirk wears a smirk of its own. (Go on, picture it.) Since everything's packed tightly, some of the particular details dropped out during their set – Dave's at his best when he gets into a long midtempo swing, usually in the refrains that close down most tracks ("fuck like you mean it, Lori / fuck you mean it, Barry / fuck like you got a reputation e'erybody..."). But his voice always layers on the beat like another instrument, and even when we couldn't pick out the words, the music still moves like a twitchy sprinting beast. All in all a damn satisfying show from an electrorap outfit that's about to burst – not too crowded, not too tense, pulsing with all the right sorts of energy.
Restiform Bodies :: TV Loves You Back Anticon RATE: 3.5/5
Reviewed on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 by Amorn Bholsangngam
Restiform Bodies certainly sounds like the Anticon group that it is. The familiar flow of twisted words that serve as social commentary and progressive yet minimalist MPC-created beats are prevalent on all tracks on their sophomore LP, TV Loves You Back. The sonic resemblance they bear to their Anticon peers comes as no surprise, considering two of its members (vocalist/MC Passage and instrumentalist/programmer Telephone Jim Jesus) have released solo records for the Bay Area indie hip hop label. However, the trio, which is rounded out by programmer Bomarr, has managed to carve out its own identity within the roster of likeminded art-hop musicians that they've found themselves a part of. Restiform Bodies may be one of the most consistently listenable artists on the label, due in large part to their willingness to craft hooks and counterbalance with their grittiness with a well-defined melody, a welcome departure from the dissonance and discordant sounds that many Anticon artists prefer. Passage demonstrates his versatility as a vocalist throughout the record, rhyming as confidently and compellingly as he croons. The musical backdrop created by Telephone Jim Jesus and Bomarr is expectedly dark and ominous yet surprisingly playful; their electro-flavored beats and post-punk-inspired synth lines sound like the soundtrack to a post-apocalyptic dance party. TV Loves You Back is the closest to pop that Anticon may ever come, a refreshing change of pace for listeners weary of the heavy, serious musical soliloquies that the label specializes in.
Restiform Bodies' long awaited follow-up and official Anticon debut! Lead vocalist Passage (who has the strangest deliveries next to Dose One) also on production alongside mad beat scientists Telephone Jim Jesus and The Bomarr Monk. The once thought to be defunct group re-unites for TV Loves You Back and their take on distaste for American consumerism. Oddly 80's-like hip hop mixed with speedy new techniques including live instrumentation over the heavily electronic trio's trademark space pop. This all might sound weird for non-listeners but it truly is an acquired taste that longtime fans have been waiting for!
Anticon's reunited Restiform Bodies play the Echo tonight by LA Weekly October 10, 2008 12:57 PM
Though its constituent parts have continued to bless us with their solo forays into left-field beats, textures and raps, it's been over four years since Oakland's Restiform Bodies crew has played L.A. intact. The reunited trio — percussionist Bomarr, expert-in-ethereal Telephone Jim Jesus, and songbird/rapper Passage — appears at the Echo tonight in support of its just-released third album and Anticon Records debut, TV Loves You Back. Restiform was, in fact, the first outside act signed to the Anticon cooperative back in 2001 (for more on the label's history, check out this week's feature, "The Year That Anticon Became A Label"), but the group went on hiatus, instead releasing a series of increasingly strong solo efforts (see TJJ's Anywhere Out Of The Everything, Passage's The Forcefield Kids, and Bomarr's Freedom From Fightened Air). The new record is a squirming pile of their various obsessions that plays as a sometimes frightening, sometimes gorgeous po-mo mashup of new wave, dirty south and ambient styles. Check out Passage's Cronenberg-like lyrical hallucinations in person tonight [...] —Chris Martins
Restiform Bodies, point de ralliement entre influences hip hop, pop, et new wave, colle on ne peut plus à la marque de fabrique Anticon. Ni plus ni moins considérés comme des démos aujourd’hui, deux albums obscurs mais remarqués ont vu le jour en ce début de vingt et unième siècle, sans pourtant qu’ils ne soient tamponnés de cette fourmi noire, gage de qualité de l’époque que le groupe d’Oakland défendait pourtant haut et fort. Ainsi, depuis leur dernière sortie officielle en 2001, sept ans sont passés, pendant lesquels Telephone Jim Jesus, Bomarr et Passage, les trois bodies, y sont allés de leurs projets solo. De quoi enfoncer le clou et s’ouvrir en grand les portes du label d’Oakland pour enfin lancer sérieusement leur carrière collective avec «TV Loves You Back», un nouvel album réparant l’injustice d’être resté trop longtemps dans l’ombre des Sole, Dose One & Co…
D’autant que ce nouvel opus ne manquera pas de satisfaire les nostalgiques des premières années Anticon (l’excellent et ultra efficace «Panic Shopper»), quand la clique californienne ne cherchait pas à renouveler en vain un hip hop marginal essoufflé, et qu’elle ne divaguait pas ainsi vers des sonorités moins familières. Ici, Restiform Bodies rappelle plutôt à une poignée d’artistes, en telle quête de personnalité qu’ils s’y perdent parfois, qu’il vaut mieux rester à ce qu’on sait faire de mieux. Et le faire bien. Ainsi, incontestablement, c’est sur un hip pop de grande classe, et aux basses piquées à la ghettotech, que les trois se sont focalisés, en soignant une production qui souligne clairement toute la maturité gagnée ces dernières années.
Et les exemples sont nombreux tout au long de «TV Loves You Back». «Black Friday» renoue avec ce hip hop aiguisé, sombre et dense, quelque peu torturé et électrique, sur lequel Passage alterne flow et chant, que ce soit sur des envolées drum n’bass ou des couplets à l’atmosphère plus plombée. RB ouvre ainsi un bal aussi maîtrisé qu’inspiré, qui ne cessera de faire bonne impression, que ce soit sur «Foul» et sa RnB alternative, sur l’electro gothique «A Pimp-Like God», ou sur «Bobby Trendy Addendum» qu’El-P n’aurait pas renié si lui aussi osait de telles consonances eighties sur ses refrains. Mais Passage, loin d’avoir tout dit, va plus loin encore, surprend, comme lorsqu’il s’écarte radicalement de son registre sur «Opulent Soul» en prenant des aises de crooner digital inédites chez lui.
Pour ce premier pas tardif dans le grand bain, Restiform Bodies passe donc haut la main l’examen de passage avec un «TV Loves You Back» cohérent. La musique, comme le propos accusant le confort moderne d’être responsable du chaos actuel, parviennent systématiquement à s’équilibrer, et rattraper les petits défauts de l’autre. Du coup, on regoûte aux plaisirs du passé tout en écoutant un disque s’inscrivant résolument dans son époque. Incontournable sauf si, pour vous, il n’y a pas de hip hop au-delà de Snoop Dogg et 50 Cent…
Thursday, February 19,2009
