Father John Misty, LUMP, The Dreebs, and more albums to know about this week
Music Reviews music review
The Dreebs, Forest Of A Crew
[Ramp Local]
Grade: B+
Forest Of A Crew, the third album from New York no-wavers The Dreebs, finds them quivering in the space where the warm becomes the curdled. The trio take pleasure in generating an electrifying tone, then batting it around during disorienting four-minute blasts of heavily rhythmic industrial punk, generating friction until the original sound is fried beyond recognition. This is uncomfortable, claustrophobic music that sounds like it’s been sourced through paper-thin apartment walls or dredged up from sewers, but The Dreebs are experts in shaping it all into an appealing form of ugliness, one that finds power in its own absurdity. A handful of ambient passages space the record out, giving us much-needed breathing room while also serving as compelling soundscapes in their own right, while the record finds its thematic peak in “De Beers,” a terrifying and gorgeous song named for the horrific means the titular company has used to source its precious gems.
RIYL: The Jesus Lizard. Girl Band. A hovering sense of dread.
Start here: “My Killer” is the album’s most immediate song, a three-minute jam of scuffed beats, hoarse singing, and merciful tension relief that recalls Drum’s Not Dead–era Liars [Marty Sartini Garner]
A$AP Rocky, Testing
[RCA]
Grade: B-
A$AP Rocky set out to find a new sound on Testing, his third LP and first since the death of close collaborator A$AP Yams. And the Harlem rapper succeeded in his quest, crafting an intriguing mix of garbled white noise and amp interference interspersed with splashes of instrumentals and a smattering of A-list features from the likes of FKA Twigs, T.I., Kid Cudi, Dev Hynes, and more. Though the finished project is as loose and incohesive as its title might suggest, there’s a lot to like about Testing: “Buck Shots” fits comfortably into the current trap trend, while “Kids Turned Out Fine” could be the stoner joint of the summer, and the Frank Ocean-featuring “Purity” harkens back to syrupy, chopped-and-screwed days.
RIYL: White noise interspersed with A$AP barbs.
Start here: Backed by Moby’s churning production, Rocky transcends his competition on “A$AP Forever.” [Nina Hernandez]
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