Review Summary: pizzamachine returns with their most complete and accomplished release to date.
When I was a kid my Dad was a man of very few words. Those words only really came out when it was late at night, and he was spinning some of his favorite records. He would tell me that when he was in his teens everyone really loved Disco music. He was smack bam in the center of that whole scene as I’ve seen the photos of him and my mum looking straight out of a John Badham film.
Dad didn’t really enjoy disco music though, he did however
really love my mum so he did what he had to do, whilst at home he was spinning Black Sabbath, The Sweet & Alice Cooper. He didn’t hide it from my Mum, but he did hide it from his parents and some of his other mates because you know how it is, we can all be looked at differently purely because of the music we like
especially if it is different from what others enjoy.
I was much the same as my Dad in my teens. I liked what I liked for all to see but loved what I loved in secret. Crunkcore is a genre that was MASSIVE when I was a teen/young fella but at the same time it was
hated easily more than anything else music wise. It had a bad reputation due to some poor releases and even worse human beings. In my circle of friends it was very much a child’s mentality if you enjoyed anything to do with Crunkcore. Like the hive mind mentally we all have as teenagers I agreed despite the fact there was something
more that I felt people were missing. If you could get past the childish lyrics, ridiculous outfits and Dahvie you will find there is some serious talent and musical knowledge waiting to be taken seriously.
With ‘Crunkcore Revenge’ your ears will be tested, strained, and calmed to varying degrees over the 26-track double album that cements pizzamachine as one of the most important artists in the current Crunkcore Revival. You still have the abrasive sound that they built their earlier sound around, but now with more streamlined song writing, crisp and cutting production and an even more impressive vocal performance.
Vocally pizzamachine is
everywhere on this release. Exchanging uncleans, cleans, raps and auto-tuned passages like nobody’s business. The shoe fits best when pizzamachine is dropping bars over the abrasive and bass driven mayhem they produce. The tongue is planted firmly in their cheek on most tracks lyrically, but this doesn’t stop pizzamachine showing love for the people in their life and appreciation for the music scene they are spearheading. With a couple of impressive features from some strong Crunkcore artist, pizza is spearheading a
serious and respected take on this genre.
‘Chew that Bubblegum’ despite being a comedic track has the best instrumental moments here and the ending encapsulates everything pizzamachine is – controlled mayhem. ‘Style’ has synth and bass parts that brought me back to my early prodigy days, ‘Get Yo Lunch On’ has a pumping bass that harkened back to my ‘Vengaboys’ days and ‘Le Romantic’ stands as one of the strongest tracks with a very nice bassline and unclean rapping vocals that would fit nicely on a Skith record. ‘Seasons Apart’ a Draconian cover shows the more relaxed side to pizza’s music whilst the Millionaires and Frozen covers show the complete opposite side of pizza although still maintaining the newly improved clean-cut production style.
I’m much older now and if people dislike what I like, so be it. Most people will look at this as purely a meme record because of the genre it falls into and dismiss it as nothing more. If you do that, that’s ok, I am not going to drag you over the coals for that, but I do think you are missing the point. Look behind the ‘4 Haterz’ and caffeine inspired tracks and you will find an artist expressing themselves in a very honest and exciting way.
As PART 2 INTRO stats, you need to listen to the album in full to gain the full experience. The ebbs and flows are sharp and abrasive. You will be confused as to what is going on at times, but it will all make sense when your eardrums settle, and you are left with a labor of love that
IS pizzamachine.
stream here: https://soundcloud.com/pizzamachine-294756418/sets/crunkcore-revenge
