Review Summary: A Monument to Madness.
As the prototypical meme collective, Death Grips have earned their right to completely piss and dance in the ashes of their so-called legacy. A monument to madness worldwide, MC Ride and Zach Hill have undoubtedly fulfilled their potential during a relatively brief tenure together. Dispensing with MC Ride's vocals for a loosely defined soundtrack (to what exactly is not clarified; typical), Zach Hill and Andy Morin get to work on their own terms on the instrumental
Fashion Week. There's charm to be found in subtracting Ride's buffoonish ramblings, and the surprising level of melodic subtleties puts the album alongside
The Money Store and
No Love Deep Web in terms of tolerability for casuals. However, Hill doesn't possess particular proficient IDM production skills, often leaving the tracks cold and half-done without their manic frontman. Standouts come occasionally, with "Runway H (2)" making for interesting listening with its use of lush guitar samples. Generally speaking however the tracks tend to stagnate, refusing to coalesce as anything more than a promotional stunt. Heap on top of it the haphazard stunts within- acrostically promoting
the powers that b - part II: jenny death, an innocuous early release to
reddit.com- and what you get is easily Death Grips' least rewarding effort yet. Indeed,
jenny death when?
