Death Grips is in its own lane, and you’ll be hard pressed to find the sound—an aggressive, provocative mix of punk, industrial, noise, and rap—the group champions from any other act on earth. Bottomless Pit, the group’s 5th album, is a mindfuck, with Zach Hill and Stefan Burnett distorting the shit out of guitars and digital noise on top of speedy, blastbeat rhythms. Stefan Burnett AKA MC Ride’s cryptic, stream-of-consciousness rapping and vocalizing add an additional layer of complexity to the already chaotic sound soup, but within the chaos is coherence and clarity firmly rooted in hip-hop and punk (it’s weird but take multiple listens and you’ll hear/see). Only seeing the band will really complete the Death Grips experience, but until then, check out “Giving Bad People Good Ideas,” “Spikes,” “BB Poison,” “Ring A Bell,” “80808” and the title track.
- music label: Harvest 2016