NETVERK – October 2012

When Death Grips signed to Epic Records, it was a record deal like no other – they gave Epic The Money Store with the corollary that the album should be made available online, for free, via file-sharing sites at the same time as its physical release. Prior to the release, nearly a third of the tracks were given away as free downloads on the band's Soundcloud. The band's actions proved that their integration into the gears of the Manichaean death machine that is the mainstream record industry was purely on their own terms – furthermore, the band hinted obliquely, in an interview with The Skinny earlier this year, that the deal itself was part of their art: “That whole exchange, that whole interaction – it was performance art,” said drummer Zach Hill. “That's what it was, and that's what it still is.”

This morning, the band released their much-anticipated follow-up to The Money Store online, for free, via their site and their Soundcloud page, with a message on Twitter outlining their reasons: “The label wouldn't confirm a release date for NO LOVE DEEP WEB 'till next year sometime'... The label will be hearing the album for the first time with you.” The album dropped, and the internet went batshit crazy. The cover, too, was a quite blatant up-yours to Epic – it featured an erect penis with the title, No Love Deep Web, scrawled across it in biro. This was Death Grips quite literally telling one of the biggest record companies left in the world to eat a dick.

So is this a clever piece of marketing hype? Are Epic in on the joke, or is this an epic situationist prank on the band's part? The band have also been running an ARG online, through various parts of the 'deep web' including 4chan – again, it's impossible to tell if this is next-level, web-savvy marketing, or sincere, inventive performance art – or indeed both, at the same time. (Check out this 'adventure log' from minus.com for a brief idea of what was involved.)

Whether the intentional leak affects album sales negatively or positively remains to be seen – indeed, whether Epic will be prepared to release the album at all after a stunt as audacious as this is an interesting question. Regardless, “the sheer fuck-off-ness of it all” (to paraphrase Don from Sexy Beast) has provided perhaps the most exciting controversy in the music world this year, and what's more, there's a healthy dose of fuck-off-ness in the music too.

No Love Deep Web sees the digital mutant bass of The Money Store and the punk weight of Exmilitary synthesised and blended, the revolutionary personal politics of MC Ride's lyrics front and centre on tracks like World of Dogs (“Ruthless and free / It's all suicide to me”), and with a gleefully bugfuck-crazy intensity on ridiculously heavy opener Come Up and Get Me (“I'm epiphanic amnesia! I'm in Jimmy Page's castle!”), and plumbing new depths of brutalism on Deep Web (“I'm the coat hanger in your man's vagina”). It's as entertaining, purifying, cathartic and infectious as their first two, and for our tastes, instantly engages as a classic.

The rest of the netaudio scene has had a busy month as well, with some notable international releases and a few treats from closer to home. Until the Death Grips' Penisgate scandal broke, one of the biggest stories in netaudio this month was to do with the creation of a new boutique label by Dana Young, briefly a member of Ariel Pink's haunted Graffitti, and the brains behind lo-fi analogue / electronics outfit C.A.N.S. (Central Asian Nervous System). His new label is focused on releasing free music via their Soundcloud page, and moving on to tape releases and other limited-run, special edition physicals further down the line. There's some decent stuff up to sample on their Soundcloud already, including strung-out, bass-heavy hip-hop from Replikator, twisted crunk from OKKULT KATT, and a few other gems. This is one label to watch in the future as they set out their stall and find their audience. There are two C.A.N.S. releases available already as physicals from their online store.



It was interesting to see Big Dada dip their toe into netlabel tactics on behalf of alt-hip-hop star Busdriver, by giving away a free 7-track EP entitled Arguments With Dreams, to publicise his upcoming tour, and full-length album, due on the label in the first half of 2013. It's an impressive return to the fray for the LA rapper, with heavy glitched-up beats and rapid-fire psychedelic lyrics, a standout track being the banging Werner Herzog, which sees Busdriver rapping about witch house (among other topics), and the Das Racist-assisted Fire Hydrant. 

The new EP on Phuturelabs by Glasgow (by way of Troon)'s Cruffy is an intelligent, deeply soulful take on future garage, with standout track Make Me Feel Good occupying similar spectral territory to NETVERKK favourites, Manchester's Holy Other. Flying High is available now.


One band we only came across recently, but who impressed us so much we had to mention them, are Brooklyn goth / post-rock noiseniks RØSENKØPF, who released a single track back in May. It's squalls of inter-looping synth, drums, screamo wails and coruscating guitar demand that you sit up and pay attention – they sound very much like a band to keep an eye on in the future.

Staying on a goth-pop tip, we definitely recommend that you check out the Joy Division-fixated three-tracker by Liverpool's Double Echo. It's got an authentic Factory Records feel, with just enough of a witch house twist to make it feel modern and relevant. 

While we're playing catchup, let's spare a minute for LAZERHAWK, signed to 80s / Electro / Dreamwave label Rosso Corsa, who make music that seems to come from an alternate future visualized in 1985. Their latest album Visitors dropped in February this year, and is perhaps the most immediate, infectious collection of electro tracks this side of Com Truise. It certainly turned a few heads when it got a play in the Skinny's offices this month.


Prolific psychedelic hip-hop producer Xrin Arms, who has released through the Realicide label, put out a new album this month via his Bandcamp. Destructo Farm is a claustrophobic, down-and-dirty collection of instrumental jams that veers from looped, woozy stoner rock on tracks like Cum In The Clown Paint to freaked out, dusted soul on Worm Galaxy. It's a filthy, sticky, joyful album, and a brilliant gateway drug to the producer's long back catalogue of solo efforts, collabs and production work for underground rappers like p.WRECKS.

The Masterminds, an underground hip-hop crew from New York, dropped a new track called Suicidal Pigeon, via a video featuring a nearly-naked young woman with a meat cleaver... which was, quite frankly, bound to catch our attention. The track's available as a free download from their Soundcloud, and is a great intro to the band, whose album The Underground Railroad caused some waves when it dropped back in August. (Thanks to @sneak046 for the hook-up on The Masterminds.)

suicidal pigeon from the masterminds on Vimeo.

Moving away from hip-hop, all your wonky electronic needs for October should be near-as-dammit filled by Frenchman Marc Blanchard, whose charming album Hypothermy is available via his Bandcamp. It's another one we're only just catching onto, having dropped in December of last year, but far from dating, it's still as vital and melodic as when it was first released. 

Death Grips' album leak has overshadowed many a decent release this month, not least the devastatingly heavy Victimeyez, an album by Portland's Bruxa. Combining dubstep, electro, juke, trap and hip-hop sounds with an incredibly sexy female vocal and dragged male counterpart, they have singlehandedly redefined the post-witch landscape with tracks like Paperweight Pt. 1, an insanely heavy slice of okkvlt rave. After their debut last year on Sweating Tapes, much was expected of Bruxa, and they haven't failed to deliver on their release for Mishka NYC.


Mishka experienced their own dose of controversy this month, having to pull a release by Supreme Cuts and Haleek Maul from their front page after only a few days. Hopefully we'll see that excellent album resurface in some form over the next few months – but typically for Mishka they didn't hang around crying about the issue, but followed up almost straight after with Bruxa's release, and a full-length album of crunked-up darkness from rapper Aaron Cohen. His album Murk is well worth a listen to anyone who likes their rap with a bit of gangster swagger, and soundtracked with dark-as-fuck beats.

It was a good month for boutique label I Had An Accident Records too, with the release of an absolutely fantastic split tape by TNDROND (aka DEFA and VOCTAVE) and legendary dark electronic scenester and producer TEXTBEAK. The album's mixture of grungy electronics, hip-hop and dub influences produces something truly unique – a sludgy, intense sonic assault that recalls XTRMNTR-era Primal Scream, or Death In Vegas at the peak of their powers. The Spirit Of Opposition is available now. 

The second tape NETVERK purchased this month was a split between sonic terrorist Nattymari, under one of his many aliases, as Curt Crackarach, and cult chanteuse Ela Orleans. The Crackarach side featured distressed loops and edits in a slightly more restrained style than Natty tends to use on his trademark 'obliterations' of songs by himself and other artists, straying into analogue synth 'library music' territory towards the end of the side. Ela Orleans' side showcased her abilities as an arranger and producer, experimenting with looped samples and generated sounds, and culminating in a never-before-heard vocal track. 80 Minutes of Funk is available now.

We'll end this month's column on a calmer note, with the so-laidback-they're-almost-horizontal sounds of Bristol-based SEEDGE. Their three-track Saturates EP came out this month via Curious Absurdities, and is well worth a listen for fans of chillwave annd hypnagogic pop.

There were similarly chilled sounds, but with a darker edge, on the sophomore EP from Fifty Grand, whose excursions into more orchestral, cinematic soundscapes on Exceptional were a welcome evolution from their no less brilliant but more guttural debut.

And finally, a mention for San Francisco's Water Borders, whose debut came out on Tri Angle (home to Holy Other and Balam Acab) last year, but who brought their latest, Each Dream A Scheme, to fellow Californians Tundra. Their three-part, deeply experimental, avant-garde excursion isn't perhaps as immediate as their debut, but on repeated listens it reveals a playful, almost whimsical charm that stays with the listener long after the album has stopped playing. With detours into drone and beat-less ambient darkness, this is inventive, post-modern pop with real depth. 

We'll leave you with a YouTube video of the entire new Death Grips album, and a challenge to follow them deeper into the Deep Web, and find out what's behind their QR codes and encrypted image posts. Good hunting!