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When you find yourself scrambling for a dictionary you're going to
need divine clarity, because ATR is filling the air with complexity,
they're confounding you lyrically with their found-art street poetry.
OK, so my rhymes are pretty weak, but the American Trash Republic
collective, consisting of Death Before Dishonor, Pilot Apollo,
Concept Oner, Skull Bludgeon, Alter Ego and Dj
Illete, have created a completely satisfying package. The crew
lashes out with stabs at religiosity and political and social ills
as viciously as Corporate Avenger, but with twice the intelligence,
three times the heart and all the street cred those Kottonmouth
cohorts lack.
The learned lyrics read like a poli-sci text, "Spitting napalm
karma/ eating your functionalism/ useless/ the naysayer slayer/ the
present day Bay Of Pigs Arayer." Too much philosophical discourse?
Strap on DJ Illiete's masterful lost-art scratching which has Ernie
exclaiming, "Bert you're sick!" Or enjoy the nimble-lipped
rap Alter Ego employs on "Hunger Pains" which cleverly melds
the Wicked Witch guard chant with "Swing Low."
The backdrops are beautiful, well-chosen loops augmented with unusual
beat tones. They could use more switch-ups in the samples, but the
vocal content more than keeps your attention with entertainingly offensive
rants like "Fuck You": "I bury bodies beneath sewage
factories/ I'm a waste product of suburban Thornton/ after snorting
cocaine I perform abortions/ I accept the fact that nothing's important/
my verbal portraits create distortions." Overall, How Dying
Saved My Life is chock full of shock and ear candy to keep you
happy or cringing for days to come, depending on your sensibilities.
Very well done.
-Ewan Wadharmi
Track List:
1. Intro
2. I Let The Days Skip
3. Lost In Time
4. Hunger Pains
5. Bride Of Bludgeon
6. Interlude 1
7. Organ Cutter
8. Goodbye
9. Fuck You
10. The 12th Prospect
11. Ohh Right
12. Interlude 2
13. Rocks Break Down
14. The Wicked
15. I Can't Feel Any Pain
16. Outro
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