new music: signor benedick the moor’s ‘garage raps vol. 1’ is a lofi kick in the face #soundcheck

If Signor Benedick the Moor’s last record was a hyper-ambitious piece of nuanced storytelling, his latest is a kick in the face with mud-encrusted Doc Martens. Trading the operatic fantasies of Opus III for lofi punk rock, Garage Raps vol. 1 is a fierce departure and a compelling left turn from a young artist who refuses categorization.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK Contributor

The record connects the dots between Fugazi-era DC hardcore, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Das Racist, and Young Fathers. “Have u seen the man of light!!” in particular is catchy, bizarre, and kind of great. The most successful tracks tend to be those like “Black Unicorn Black Uniform” that allow Benedick the room to flex his prodigious muscles as a lyricist. It’s a lot of fun watching his obvious glee at unhinging on “garage” and “Have u seen the man of light!!” but Signor Benedick the Moor is clearly still more comfortable crafting left-field hip hop than lofi punk rock, though part of the fun of the record in general is its mixtape grab bag aesthetic.

Some experiments work better than others. “GEB” with his quotation of Douglas Hofstadler’s “Gödel, Escher, Bach” over looped vocals (which themselves are chanting “Gödel, Escher, Bach” in canon) is brief, weird, and awesome. “G6.3 scat!” (part of the G6 suite, and is either misnumbered or a Monty Python reference, and it could really go either way) builds from a looped vocal into noise rap. Garage Raps vol. 1 takes the volumes of sheet music of Opus III, tears it into tiny pieces, and loads it into a confetti cannon.

In true DIY fashion, the record is currently for sale on Signor Benedick the Moor’s bandcamp with an assortment of random things found in his room. For $9 you get the album, something lying around his room, and a “shitty picture” (comes with “no guarantee it will be good.”) It’s like Ebullition Records, except fun.