Story of A Song: Campfire Song?

Alright!

I like to make weird compositions! This post is describing my process of composing a song aptly titled (in my head at least...) Campfire Song?

My process of composition? Well, I know it's good to have one, some people start with a melody, some with harmony, some with lyrics. The answer is I DON'T KNOW. I can start with one the things I mentioned or it could also be something like "what about a hip-hop song with an industrial beat" or "I am in the mood of some saxophone" or "I just watched scenes of The Room, let's do a song about that". I am sure this is the reason I don't get anywhere with most of my ideas, well who cares I like it...

Ok so this song, how did it start?

I mostly play on my electric guitar, but I also have a very shitty acoustic (about ~60$, so...) with exceptionally good strings on it. I sometimes just strum on acoustic trying to do something without any thought or when I am waiting for a code to finish compiling. 

This song started with such a scenario.

I was trying to find a cool lead transition from a C chord to Am, well I was unsuccessful. However, I found a "chord" which sounded cool between C and Am, I didn't know what that chord was...... So I went here (I often end up here) and put in the notes I was playing, and lo and behold it was Bm with some weird stuff (see image on right). Ok, so I have C, Bm-whatever and Am, not feeling adventurous I just put Am7 at the end. That's our 4/4 progression.

More twiddling with it and I finally reach my chord progression, possibly the best chord progression of all time (alteast this week..).

C6(11) , Bm(11,b6,b9) , Am , Am7

Cool! Very Cool!

So I like this progression so much that I just keep playing it, and coz it is pretty bad acoustic it has some weird fuzz and rough/lo-fi sounding elements that I love quite a bit. I am keeping my playing deliberately sloppy which gives rise to this very amazing sloppy but organic aesthetic, like a campfire guitar without any cringy singing. I am in love with it (I loved this aesthetic partly coz at the time I was digging into Glow Pt 2 by The Microphones, an amazing album. A certified classic at this point give it a listen.) and that's when I knew I want to record this.

But where is this going? Let's just keep it LINEAR, which is a song structure that follows the same pattern the entire song. 

I did the most obvious thing, I started playing soft and gradually increasing the intensity with slightly changing strum patterns till it becomes really loud. I kept internal timing without a reference, so the tempo is almost constant again adding to the sloppy aesthetic. 

This sounds cool but is not enough, additionally, I need an ending. So after playing around I arrived at the transition I liked.

I play gradually increasing the intensity and slightly dynamic strumming --> Reach max intensity play for a bar --> Immediately slow the playing down to the lowest and fade out --> 1/4 bar silence --> start with max intensity again play for bar and end with a smooth slowing of intensity.

Ok so now I have a solid middle for a song, now I need a backbone, I add a simple bassline which elevates it. But now I need something organic playing in the background which will be noticeable when the silence comes in, keeping the theme in mind I use an autumn sounds sample I found for free online, which works very nicely.

Now what the track needs is a kick, which is mostly called a bridge. I call it a part of a song that causes one of your eyebrows to raise. Me being a fairly contrarian as a person, I think this translates into my music as well, I wanted to find something which cannot possibly be played at a campfire. The answer = Orchestra. After the fake stop in the song I bring in the acoustic instrumentation with a full strings section and after a bar, I put in a SAX SOLO that I am pretty proud of. 

Oh Yeah, and BTW this is why the song is called Campfire Song?, the question mark after the most generic name ever.

Now the track is ready, the rest is just dressing. I add several different percussion but never overshadowing the main rustic guitar. Added a layer of acoustic guitar lead and an electric guitar touch up. I added a prepared guitar track as well to add in a cool percussion but it's not an important part. At the very end the song gets discordant and ends in that manner, I though it was (and usually I think like this) cool to add some out of scale notes to a pretty rustic and lighthearted track otherwise. 

---------------

Now comes the important part, mixing! For me, it is a very visual process so I drew it as best as I could. Think a stage with right and left speakers represented on x axis and y axis is the distance from the listener (can also think in terms of volume).

Ok I see it is terrible but bear with me, few people sitting at campfire playing their instrument and you listening to them? Think about that and it makes sense now, all I had to figure out is the placement of the orchestral instruments.

Some production stuff later, reverb, echo , pan ..... EQ, EQ, EQ, EQ...

And we have a song ready!

HAVE A LISTEN!

I think I spent about 2-3 hours actually recording the different parts, about 2 more hours of mixing and production. And a whole 2 days or more with the ideation. This was a fun track, I have not done something like this before and the drum free composition is very very freeing.

Recent Albums to Check Out (2020) - 5

This is batch 5 of the posts that I make for noting some of the great albums which came out in current year of 2020, and usually touch upon 3-4 albums which have been added to my library this year.

Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA

Genre: Art-Pop, Experimental-Pop, Synth-Pop

Release Date: April 17, 2020

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Oh so another album in an ever-growing trend of 80s dance/synth-pop revival in the current pop scene, well yes but this album has a ton of surprises in store as well. With Clarence Clarity on production, the weird sonic textures for a pop album are thrown at us right from the opening track. The front end of the album borrows quite heavily from alternative/nu-metal ideas (I know! In a pop album), but it works quite nicely and makes me very excited for the future of this sound. The synth-pop revival sounds with amazing and very modern sound is still there from her debut EP. The lyrical material is not very deep but still touches on a variety of topics which is still rare considering pop standards. Last but far from least Rina is in total control of her voice and the emotion she wants to get through, it is super forceful in STFU and Dynasty, while still being extremely tender and vulnerable in Chosen Family and Bad Friend. 

Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You?

Genre: Jazz, Jazz Fusion

Release Date: March 20, 2020

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Moor Mother has done some fantastic work, she a musician, poet and an activist, and she sings and write lyrics for Irreversible Entanglements, surrounded by talented jazz musicians from Chicago's amazing International Anthem recording co. This album is jazz with aggression of a hardcore-punk band and with poignant lyricism of a razor-sharp political rap track. Some of the improvisations on this record almost feel like a noisy drone assault. I cannot say enough good things about this album and I love it to pieces, but it comes with a caveat this is definitely not for everyone, and even seasoned jazz listeners might get turned off. However, if you are looking for something new and refreshing for your ears, this is it.

Intronaut - Fluid Existential Inversions

Genre: Progressive Metal, Post Metal

Release Date: February 28, 2020

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There is an age-old question, what happens if Between The Buried and Me spent the entire album cycle to Times of Grace by Neurosis? Well, now we have the answer.

But in all seriousness, this album presents a unique blend of metalcore, progressive metal, and post-metal (or atmospheric sludge if you will) and they nail the execution, this is also an album which has one of the most cohesive flow in 2020. Lyrically the themes explored are largely philosophical bordering on pretentious, but the important thing is they don't cross that line. On a very important note is the production, IT IS NOT OVERDONE TO THE POINT OF STERILITY! That's a great sign and the band manages to escape the modern production tropes plaguing progressive metal currently, even with the clean sound and plethora of sonic textures being used the production manages to sound organic, specifically the drum sound, my god the DRUMMMMMMMS. It has been a while since I have enjoyed a progressive metal album, I am happy!

Recent Albums to Check Out (2020) - 4

This is batch 4 of the posts that I make for noting some of the great albums which came out in current year of 2020, and usually touch upon 3-4 albums which have been added to my library this year.

HMLTD - West Of Eden

Genre: Post-Punk, Art-Punk

Release Date: February 7, 2020

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Post-Punk revival, especially in the UK, has been seeing steady resurgence throughout the 2010s, in 2020 the revival movement is reaching a peak with so many great post-punk albums coming out. Even among this crop of post-punk bands that are putting out some great work, HMLTD feels special and fresh. West Of Eden is their debut album and what a thrilling listen it is. a solid amalgamation of several ideas ranging from slow-burning ballads to trap beats wrapped around in a post-punk aesthetic. With so many ideas packed in the album almost feels disjointed, and may distract some listeners. One of the best quality of this record is how catchy it is, considering how many weird blends of genres each track works with. Finally, the lyricism on this album is sharp and at times twisted even by post-punk standards. "Nobody Stays In Love" is a pop song on a post-punk album, and one of the better ones to come out this year. If I can suggest one post-punk album from 2020 so far, West of Eden will be it.

Perfume Genius - Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Art-Pop

Release Date: May 15, 2020

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Imma say it, Perfume Genius is the most consistently great Singer-Songwriter throughout 2010s. Set My Heart On Fire, Immediately is his fifth studio album and he has not faltered here, it is great no scratch that it is beautiful and amazing and mesmerizing. His last album No Shape I think was his best yet, and even though this album does not reach the same highs that album did it contains the same carefully crafted ethereal production, the instrumental palate is gorgeous and very skeletal at times. Lyrically, the songs again deal with some very intimate lyrics about love and loss, but also many songs deals with the themes of flesh and body and sexuality, but at every instant it feels like each song is sung exclusively to you. Some of the best pop songs of the year lie in this album such as "Jason" and "On The Floor". I would suggest this album to anyone, it is a good reminder of what all pop can be.

Run The Jewels - RTJ4

Genre: Hip-Hop, Political Rap

Release Date: June 3, 2020

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Run the Jewels are super popular, so why I am talking about it. This is their best album yet, not that RTW made a bad album till now but this just slaps. Perfect soundtrack to 2020s political climate. Nothing much to say more, it is full of hardcore hip-hop bangers. Just go and have a listen.

 

Gulch - Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress

Genre: Hardcore, Punk, Noise

Release Date: July 24, 2020

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This is the best onslaught of just relentless hardcore punk thrown at me all year, and it just manages to melt your face off in 15 mins, that's it the album is just 15 mins long. Even in this short runtime Gulch manages to infuse elements of hardcore punk, grindcore, metalcore, noise and even some sludge metal in their songs, and there is care and thought put into their songwriting. The more I listen to this the more I realize how incredibly dynamic this record is, both in terms of styles of music covered and the sonic diversity given to the listener, with some heavy but relatively slow chugging riffs juxtaposed with passages of just insane blasts (very Napalm Death-esque). The production is great, every instrument stands out with very impressive guitar work ranging from riffage to noisy interludes, not flashy yet crisp drumming and ever present and chugging bass. Finally, the vocals steal the show, and are almost a sampling pack of metal scream type from grindcore shrieks, sludge growls to even black metal high scream. This is an amazing album, any punk/rock/metal fan should check this out.

Discography Exploration: Young Fathers

I am going to dive into Young Fathers' discography and look at all of their studio albums and mixtapes, and talk about each briefly and provide a conclusive report! 

Genre: Experimental Hip-Hop, RnB, Noise Rock, Lo-Fi

Formation: Edinburgh, Scotland in 2008

Members: Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham 'G' Hastings

Tape One (2011)

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The debut EP/mixtape by Young Fathers definitely shows what is so interesting about the group, immediately the one two punch of Deadline and Sister gets the listener excited about noisy fusion of RnB, hip-hop, reggae and rap with some really cool chants and African rhythms thrown in the mix. The production is very lo-fi and this is mostly in positive way but towards the end it gets little one note. The songwriting is standard for a debut project, and is a collection of ideas thrown at us rather which have not reached their final product. In terms of lyrics they are few but are placed very well with respect to instrumentation which lets the hypnotic beats takes hold of the listener. This is a great well constructed experimental project by Young Fathers, with very innovative production and sonic aesthetic.

Tape Two (2013)

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"Science if eerie when you're still around" is the lyric that opens this album up, and man this album is weird, on first glance it looks like the addendum to Tape One and is aptly titled Tape Two, but on more listens Young Fathers improve in every aspect, most notably on songwriting and more experimental and innovative production. There is still that unique Young Fathers sound of reggae, soul, RnB, hip-hop and rap all mixed in a very clever way with a murky layer of lo-fi production present throughout. Speaking of production this time around they seem to be more deliberate about the lo-fi aesthetic and it feels well thought out. This is a great EP, almost all songs are very good, highlights like I Heard, Mr Martyr and the amazing AMAZING closer Ebony Sky are something you can listen to over and over again. 

Dead (2014)

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This I think is Young Fathers best album, the album which got them the Mercury price. They build on top of the sound they perfected in their first two tapes but more reeled in and that gives an excellent sense of cohesion to the album. Not only that Young Fathers once again improve their songwriting a lot as well as the lyricism. The whole album is tied together with a loose concepts about war and its atrocities, and some of the imagery is really vivid. I would also say Dead is also Young Fathers catchiest album with just 34 mins of runtime, it is definitely packed with very catchy bangers like Get Up, Just Another Bullet and Paying. This is where Young Fathers have reached at the pinnacle of their lo-fi experimental hip-hop and RnB. This is one of the rare perfect  10/10 albums for me every song is perfect and the album listening experience enhances the songs.

White Men Are Black Men Too (2015)

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Where could young fathers go after achieving perfection in Dead with the sounds of hip-hop, RnB, Soul with a relatively polished and appealing (still creative) production. The answer is to their roots, they go back to their tape One days of low-fi, the production on this album is really noisy and muddled together, they also move away from rap and incorporate more singing and Soul oriented songs in this record. The biggest change is the instrumentation, hidden behind the grimy production they seem to be experimenting with more diverse instrumentation with quirky synth samples thrown in many tracks. It seems they are still toying with this style on this album and all the ideas have not been perfected. By no means it is a bad album, it's great, but it also hints to something better to come. Oh, and, "Old Rock n Roll" is one of the best songs they have ever written.

Cacao Sugar (2018)

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Well, the thing that Young Fathers were building towards almost yields fruition in Cacao Sugar, which is also the group's most polished and in turn accessible album. The added instrumentation and more Soul heavy songs which they experimented within their previous record is present here in a more well-arranged manner and wrapper together with better songs. Even though the recording quality is much more polished but there are also still elements of lo-fi present in the music, plus the lyrical content of this album is more coherent and entails some religious themes throughout. Also let us not forget this is a great album cover, super iconic, and will draw the listener in. This is a great jumping-in point album, if you don't like this album then you will have a hard time liking Young Fathers other works.

Final Thoughts 

Young Fathers never really put out a dud album in their discography so far, and it seems they are still going strong. I would still argue that Dead remains their best work and will be hard to top given it is a perfect record. To a new listener I would suggest them to check out Cocao Sugar and then Dead to get an idea what this group is about, i.e., one of the best abstract/experimental hip-hop and RnB groups operating currently.

Essential Albums - Dummy

 

Artist/Band: Portishead

Genre: Trip-Hop, Electronic, Jazz, Minimalism 

Label: Polydor Associated Labels

Year: 1994

Portishead's debut is a popular album in a music fan's mind but I think it is one of the best albums ever conceived, and it should be recognized as such.

About

Portishead formed in 1991 in Bristol, England, and is comprised of three primary members, singer-songwriter Beth Gibbons, electronic wiz and producer Geoff Barrow, and the jazz expert and co-producer Adrian Utley. Given the respective backgrounds of the trio, one can see how their debut output Dummy is a fusion of multiple genres of jazz, electronic, and sample music, pioneering the sound of trip-hop and downtempo music. For a debut album, Dummy is incredible in its consistency, album flow and cohesion. Each song focuses more on the sonic quality rather than loading it up with extravagant instrumentation, and they end up being sparse and repetitive establishing a very minimalist feel. And the entire album gives a feel of very slowly being submerged into a sea of uneasy utopia, the beaming and very sweet voice of Beth Gibbons pairs very well with a dark tone and sparser but loud beats. Every placing of each note, each guitar passage, each beat is very calculated but still manages to retain the "in the moment" feel. I love this album, I will put this somewhere in my top 10 best albums of all time.

Music

Dummy is 11 tracks of pure perfection, the opening track Mysterons encapsulates the vibe that Portishead are shooting for in the first 15 seconds, with very spacey keys and disk scratch and amazing snare hits, and it is pierced by the vocals with lyrics referencing an old British superhero film, towards the end the track ever so subtly starts going off its perfect sound and it warps a little. Sour Times is the second single from the album and has a cool sample of this with this delayed bells or similar and a plucky bass, a great single, the vocal inflections on this track are like everything else subtle and I noticed only after many listens. Strangers is a great song with a nice juxtaposition with a bass-heavy part and almost skeletal vocal verse, as great is this song it is in an unfortunate place between powerhouses of songs surrounding it. The next songs It Could Be Sweet and Wandering Star represent the best one-two punch provided by a pair of songs ever. The former is a bittersweet song about love and its struggles and it is amazing, with its almost industrial-esque samples and a very simple bass loop, with an exemplary vocal performance which is mastered masterfully (heh.). The next song Wandering Star might be my favorite from the album, the bass with heavy reverb and delay with almost distorted cymbals is a perfect tone-setter, the first verse is a normal vocal delivery then the sample and one of the most soulful disk-scratch comes in with every so minimal guitar leads with chorus and the following verse. The track keeps building instrumentally and is such a delight to listen, and of course, the obnoxiously catchy hook and the sadness it portrays is really powerful. It's A Fire deviates from the norm with it starting from the chord progression with comes as a breath of fresh relief from the bleak atmosphere presented in the album so far sonically, however, it is still very bleak and almost beautiful in its lyrics. Numb is full of intricate percussion and sonic textures with very emotional lyrics dealing with isolation. Roads start with this simple phased out guitar strums and is an amazing song, and when the beat kicks in is just such a mesmerizing moment, but the track had another one for you when the strings and layered guitars come in, and the hook where Beth sings "How can it feel this wrong?" never fails me to bring to tears. Pedestal and Biscuit are amazing songs but nothing different, just solid songwriting and fit's the album perfectly. The ending track Glory Box was the most popular single from this album and one can see why, its backbone is a simple beat sample and a spectacular vocal performance with some very cool effects on her voice thrown in, then the guitar comes in and blows everyone's mind and then is followed by a very succinct yet amazing guitar solo, AWESOME. It is just like Portishead to throw a song switch-up in the last 30 seconds of the album and then the song has a nice simple fade-out ending, and there is only one thing you can do now, listen to the record again!

Final Thoughts

This is one of the best albums ever made period, a band to have achieved so much perfection in their debut album is rare. Portishead will go on to do some more experimental stuff with their following albums but none reach the melancholic heights that dummy does. It is a full album experience, but still, the songs to sample from this album are either Glory Box or Wandering Star. The production through is very immaculate and never falters making it very similar at first listen, but Dummy is the album of subtleties, the more you listen the more weird and strange fun Portishead had with this album. Nothing more to say, my excitement for this album is apparent so just LISTEN.

 

 

Recent Albums to Check Out (2020) - 3

This is batch 3 of the posts that I make for noting some of the great albums which came out in current year of 2020, and usually touch upon 3-4 albums which have been added to my library this year.

Pyrrhon - Abscess Time

Genre: Extreme Metal, Technical Death Metal, Avant Garde Metal

Release Date: June 26, 2020

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Pyrrhon probably is one of most interesting but really hard to get into acts in extreme metal right now, with two stellar albums before this release where they seamlessly blend Technical Death Metal Hardcore and Noise into their hard sound with very philosophical lyrics bordering on pretentious how can they top it. I am pleased to say this is Pyrrhon's best work yet, the noise and drone elements are explored more with some obvious early Swans influences going on, this allows Pyrrhon to explore with the idea of space and makes the album more dynamic. This is not to say that there are not crushing riffs and super fast technical playing, yes of course there it and the band seems to have only upped their execution. This is an album which challenges the listener on every aspect of the listening experience and that obviously makes the audience of such album very limited but boy-of-boy this is a delight for me. On the production front Colin Marston does a great job on sparse components of the album giving organic dynamics to the flow the album. 

My Morning Jacket - Waterfall II

Genre: Indie Folk, Indie Rock

Release Date: July 10, 2020

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My Morning Jacket is a standard A tier indie rock band, with some notable albums like Z and At Dawn followed by 'just pleasent' indie rock and folk. Waterfall was an enjoyable album but apart from couple of songs I had no desire to revisit, so I am very glad when I checked out Waterfall II, this is definitely their best offering since Z, and the sonic textures in this album go from dream pop, psychedelic, country rock and folk but it all works together very well. The three song run of Magic Bullet - Run It - Wasted is enough to sell me on this album but then you also have other amazing highlights like Feel You and Spinning My Wheels. Also this album is a grower, I knew this was a great album when I heard it the first time but it has grown on me significantly.

Animal Collective - Bridge To Quiet

Genre: Indietronic, Experimental Pop, Ambient 

Release Date: July 4, 2020

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Well, there is no question that Animal Collective is one of the most forward-thinking pop groups putting out amazing material as a collective of via individual members for quite a few years now. After the excellent run of studio albums in the 2000s their output in 2010s so far has been underwhelming, this EP, however, is four tracks in the right direction. Each track is ~10 mins long and can be defined as calculated indulgence. The sound of this EP is impeccable, even with long-winded ambient passages like in title track, Animal Collective manages to keep things very interesting by introducing subtle instrumentations in various places. What this EP lacks in cohesion it makes up for a gauntlet of ideas packed in 30 mins and I can't wait for an album making use of these ideas into a more impeccable execution.

Recent Albums To Check Out (2020) - 2

This is batch 2 of the posts that I make for noting some of the great albums which came out in current year of 2020, and usually touch upon 3-4 albums which have been added to my library this year.

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

Genre: Singer-Songwriter

Release Date: June 18, 2020

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The hype surrounding Phoebe Bridgers is insane, she is everywhere this year especially if you are following indie content, this made me skeptical to try out here new record, plus I found Stranger In The Alps likable but was nowhere close to loving it. Boy, I am so glad I gave this one a chance, this is one of the most emotionally potent Singer-Songwriter albums I have heard in a quite a while. Phoebe's lyricism is not as cryptic as an Elliot Smith but is not as direct as Mountain Goats, it is subtle without being hidden, it has layers and the layers are apparent, more time you spend with this album more it will hit you. A second very important characteristic that makes this album great it the production which is immaculate and on songs like Kyoto and I know the End Phoebe takes some risks and they pay off in making the album more diverse. "I Know The End" is probably my favorite song of the year so far. 

Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats - Unlocked

Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

Release Date: February 7, 2020

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This is an EP released by one of the most exciting faces in Hip-hop Denzel Curry with producer extraordinaire Kenny Beats, it is a short 8 tracks and just over 20 minutes in runtime.  Despite its short length, the duo has filled this project with as much energy and heart as possible. The beats are solid and hard-hitting and the bars are well constructed. This could not have been an easy album for Denzel to make as he steers away from his usual style almost completely, his flows sounds very inspired by Wu-Tang era new your rap. This album is very good and each song is great, but none of them experiments enough to wow but I guess that's fine for an EP, the way this is executed is the reason to give it a listen.

Algiers - There Is No Year

Genre: Post-Punk, Art-Punk, RnB

Release Date: January 17, 2020

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An album from January, that seems so far behind right now, but I still keep revisiting this album once or twice a month, and there is a good reason. This is a great post-punk release from Algiers. Algiers is one of the most innovative post-punk bands from the UK revival scene, this is their third studio and they stick to their appeal immaculate fusion of punk ethos and RnB smoothness. Their unique sound mixed in with their politically charged lyrics and well-executed and produced tracks shows they really put a lot of work and thought into what they do. This album is no exception, the production falters a little at places but in general, it is full of great songs like 'Dispossession'. If you are a fan of punk/post-punk or even a rock or an RnB fan this is an album you want to check out.