May 17, 2015

Jellyfish Brigade - Gills and a Helmet (2011)



Jellyfish Brigade is a duo from the Northwest US made up of Lucas Dix (formerly of Hives Inquiry Squad) and Jeffrey Acciaioli (aka The Great Mundane). Lucas Dix comes off like an old man on a park bench, freely sharing his profundity with whoever's listening. Jeffrey Acciaioli sets these barefoot poems in a soundscape as vast and wondrous as the wilderness they were inspired by. To my knowledge, Jellyfish Brigade is the only group fusing elements of folk, hip-hop, and electronic music. This is their first release and free to download, so cop it, ruminate on it, and let me know what you think down below.

Spoiler

@Deadpool @Flacko @Peter Parker @Michael Scott @FreeAgent @Jimmy @able @FullSpeed @Big Mitch @Ozy @BigCountry

Click here to sign up for the SxN80 Listening Club.
Click here to sign up for the SxN80 Viewing Club.

 

May 17, 2015

In. I hope theyre not hipster white guys.

 

May 17, 2015

They most definitely are. Lucas Dix is one of the least cringeworthy white rappers I know. This is coming from somebody who can't stand most of them. His influences are anything but corny white rappers and he translates into his own music effortlessly. His mentor was Gavin Theory who was like the Northwest's Eyedea before passed from cancer.

 

May 17, 2015

In. Haven't got time right now, but I'll give it a listen later.

 

May 17, 2015

No problem. Remember everybody has a week respond to it, so no rush. Let it sink a while.

 

May 17, 2015

to join the listening club or the cool cat club is the question

stay tuned, about to design an icon for each club

 

May 17, 2015

You can join both...

 

May 17, 2015

Interesting.

 

May 17, 2015

will use my last day of a tidal subscription on this

@CharlieWork can i pick next weeks? i was thinking this

 

May 17, 2015

Thanks, I will listen to it later. Great way to listen to new music, I'm not from the US so I wouldn't even hear about these guys

 

May 17, 2015

First reaction is I'm not really sure what to think, thought it was unique and I'm intrigued enough to at least want to hear more. Plus they're from my area so that's cool.

 

May 17, 2015

This thread isn't for deciding that. Like I said, users who participate and contribute more to this thread will be the ones to decide next week's album. It's an incentive.

 

May 17, 2015

I've already listened to it

 

May 17, 2015

s--- never mind my last post, didn't realize this is a full album not just a song. Gonna keep listening now, feeling the 2nd song a little more than the 1st already.

 

May 17, 2015

oh I already know about a romanian group that fusions folk, hip-hop and electronic music, good choose

 

May 17, 2015

This is part of an ongoing thing so post in this thread if you want to be mentioned each week.

 

May 17, 2015

omg competition

 

May 17, 2015

I'll kick off the discussion with the opinions that I've cultivated over the passed couple of years.

First off, Lucas Dix is no schmuck on the mic. Very few rappers can make heady penmanship sound informal and wordy flows sound smooth. His writing is heavily premeditated but delivered in an off-the-cuff manner. His brand of rap is usually the flagship for poor technical skill, but he never loses sight of the music as a whole. A scholarly Prodigy, his flow finds room organically, never shoehorned in to account for unwieldy lyrics.

His penmanship is characterized by his identity: various literary allusions thanks to his major in English, images drawn from the nature he enjoys as an avid outdoors-man, and vast influence from the rap music that he's listened to his entire life. The result is a collage of colorful ideas cut together like a jigsaw. His sparse use of ebonics (i.e. dunny, fam) doesn't feel like cheap imitation but earnest homage. There are many quote-worthy couplets sprinkled throughout his dense verses.

The Great Mundane's beats are a refreshing change of pace from typical and trendy styles of production. More akin to trip-hop or downtempo, his signature sound is as suitable for Lucas Dix as Blockhead's was for Aesop Rock. His spacey compositions set the stage perfectly for the conversation. His sonic ideas are otherworldly while the lyrics are introspective, a fitting juxtaposition.

Favorite Tracks: Dreams and Clean Weapons, Well Dwellers

 

May 17, 2015

To my surprise I actually have listened to this one before. Firstly the production is absolutely brilliant; there is a consistent electronic/atmospheric sound that keeps the sequencing from track to track as a fresh new experience, it never feels monotonous. The MC, Lucas Dix sometimes sounds a bit bland at least in comparison to the accompanying instrumentals but he does manage to demonstrate moments of superb lyricism and if you ask me evades the pitfalls of being a "irritating white rapper" unlike other contemporaries. It's a diamond in the rough but overall the duo deserve credit for finding a winning formula and having a natural chemistry. To wrap it up the album is an easy listen from top to bottom and as an EP it's a short but sweet experience, my personal favorite was definitely Dance In The Dungeon.