Government Plates
Third Worlds
The first single released from this avant-garde-proto-punk-electro outfit’s new album, Government Plates, is You Might Think He Loves You For Your Money But I Know What He Really Loves You For It’s Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat, a Bob Dylan lyric which has now become an unintended tribute to Miranda Kerr and James Packer’s tryst.
It opens the third LP for the Sacramento three-piece – Stefan Burnett (vocals), Zach Hill (drums) and Andy Morin (samples). The alternative mainstream’s embrace has resulted in Death Grips taking no prisoners on Government Plates. The album swings from bass-heavy punk to up-tempo dubstep, heavy electro and even phases of late ’90s dance cheese.
The aforementioned first single from the album begins with Burnett crying, “Get some fucking dog in here’ then a mind-slaying compressed bass synth drops in – it will leave you out of breath.
There is something distinctly ’90s about this album, but with a tweens atomic digital redux. Death Grips seem similar to Atari Teenage Riot (apparently they’re still around but the German duo’s heyday was around 1999), and other digital hardcore acts like Fuck Buttons and The Liars are also fair likenesses. But, really, there are no acts around like Death Grips – so get into them now before this aberration becomes a myth or rumour spoken about in hushed voices.
DAN WATT
