Despite brief moments in the musical timeline, rap-rock has rarely seen a sustained period of excellence or innovation. Yes, we’ve had nu-metal outfits, a host of alternative rock groups who experimented with occasional rap verses, and of course the classic run DMC, but, by and large, it has largely been unexplored. And in many ways, that’s a sad truth. Both hip-hop and rock music are the most pre-eminent styles of music for the better part of a century. To LA based New Plague Radio, blending these two styles together is a cakewalk.
The Beeswax EP brings out a unique & distinctive blend of in-your-face absurdist hip-hop and rock that hits on several types of sounds without sacrificing any of the core fundamentals. Between Rapper Chief Redeye’s verses that touch on everything from mental instability to horror scenarios to sexual conquests, and Donovan Wolfington alongside Devin Taylor laying down guitar and bass that grooves and knocks in equal measure, the album is a smorgasbord of eclectic soudns that combine for something wonderful.
The group are wholly their own, stringing together influences from 70s punk, 80s hip-hop, and 90s alternative with a modern production spin that binds it all together. The band formed when Los Angeles rapper Chief Redeye asked Berklee trained singer and composer Donovan Wolfington to organize his 2019 album release show. Wolfington reached out to Stretch Zero’s Devin Taylor to play bass, and the trio, bonded by their mutual love of foreign horror films and old cartoons, began writing songs between rehearsals
Experimentation is at the heart of New Plague Radio. On ‘The Beeswax’, the latter half of the album contains two tracks that together stand at over fifteen minutes long! The group are unafraid of releasing material that is lengthy and like nothing you’ve heard before. The finale of the album, my personal favourite, ‘…And Now We Move Mountains’ is a wonderful progressive rock piece that is majestic in its composition and grandiose in its execution. The nine and a half minute epic perhaps utilises less direct hip-hop elements than the rest of the project, but it indeed does make you feel like you could move mountains! The electric guitar solo at the end is simply one of the best moments to close out an album all year.
So, for fans of more experimental rock music, and for those who have an affinity of rap-rock, New Plague Radio is a group you should definitely keep an eye out for.
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