Death Grips at Pohoda 2019
Pohoda 2019 will also host the Californian band Death Grips. Their extremely vigorous mixture of experimental hip-hop, industrial noise electronics and punk rock earned recognition from music critics and fans around the world right with their first album. Many media write about them as one of the most interesting bands of this decade, while Pitchfork included their debut among the top ten albums of 2012. Death Grips have also collaborated with a Björk and inspired the albums of Kasabian and David Bowie. In 100 days they’re coming to the Trenčín airport to inspire the attenders of our festival as well.
02. April 2019
Death Grips were founded in 2010 in California's capital by drummer and producer Zach Hill, sound engineer Andy Morin and rapper Stefan Burnett known as MC Ride. Right on the first day of the band’s formation they recorded "Full Moon (Death Classic)". It also appeared on the freely available eponymous EP from March 2011. A month later they released the Exmilitary mixtape and a year later their debut The Money Store. All Music described it as avant rap and Pitchfork as a confrontational, rough and messy record. The author of the review, Jayson Greene, wrote about the album that he had an overwhelming desire to split his forehead open on a cinder block while listening to it. Out of context, it may not sound very flattering, but it was, in fact, a compliment to their aggressive music. The album earned a 8.7 out of 10 score and the Best New Music label. British Drowned in Sound even awarded it with 10 out of 10, while the author Mike Diver called it the album of 2012 ("Aww, fuck it ... album of the year, in this house").
Shortly after the debut, they leaked their second album, No Love Deep Web, which resulted in their label ending the collaboration with them. It was, again, accompanied by music critics’ odes. NPR, for example, called it a soundtrack to modern urban life. Their vast creativity was confirmed by the third studio album in two years called Government Plates. It was the third album in row that Pitchfork ranked more than eight out of ten. Ian Cohen wrote that they make music that doesn't care how you feel, but how you react to it. A year later they continued with the Powers That B double album composed of Niggas on the Moon (with Björk’s vocals) and Jenny Death. At the same time, however, fans weren’t happy with the news about the band's break-up. Eight months later they admitted that they’d do some more music together. In May 2016 they released Bottomless Pitch, again, with fantastic feedback. According to Rolling Stone, it proves that Death Grips sound like no other band in the world. The magazine says that inn their music, Death Grips consume all the different genres just to spit them back. Last summer they released the sixth studio album, Year of the Snitch, which, according to The Line of Best Fit, pushed every boundary around it. Although Burnett's aggressive rap is dominant in their songs, their music is not primarily sought after by hip-hop lovers, but by fans of industrial electronics and heavier genres. Regardless of genre preferences, we recommend their show at Pohoda 2019 (especially to fans of Ho99o9).