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6 - Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Ghostface lives on

Angsty rhythm on Thee
Oh Sees latest effort

Former Wu-Tang
member teams up
with Adrian Younge
By JACKSON HOWARD
DailyArts Writer
Ghostface Killah might be
known best as a member of
the Wu-Tang Clan, but take a
quick look at
his Wikipe- -
dia page, and
it's very clear Twelve
that he's much Reasons
more than just
a Wu disciple. to Die
He's released Ghostface
10 studio KiIlah and
albuns
including two Adrian Younge
classics and Soul Temple
an R&B-styled
one - six col-
laboration projects, appeared
in six films, five TV series and
four video games. Simply put,
Ghostface constantly refines
and expands his game, even 20
years after Wu-Tang's classic
debut.
It's not a complete surprise,
then, that Ghostface decided
to cut a concept album with
a live band - led by a mostly
unknown producer - centered
on a mythological black mafia
don in 1960s Italy. The album,
Twelve Reasons to Die, is also
being released with an accom-
panying comic book. Of course
it is.
Ghostface and Adrian Younge
- the Los Angeles-based pro-
ducer behind Twelve Reasons
to Die - somehow manage to
expand Wu-Tang Clan's seem-
ingly unchangeable sound into
an entirely new product. Grant-
ed, Younge's haunting, sweeping
instrumentals take more than a
couple pages from the playbook
of the album's executive produc-
er, narrator and Wu-Tang found-
er RZA, but for the most part,
Twelve Reasons to Die captures
the greatness of Wu-Tang while
also putting an original twist on
its signature style.
The story arch revolves

around Tony Starks - one of
Ghostface's many alter egos
- and his rise, fall and rebirth
battling the fictional DeLuca
mob family in the crime world
of 1960s Italy. The album flows
together naturally from the
introductory overture "Beware
of the Stare," mostly due to
Younge's cinematic instrumen-
tal combination of classic Wu-
Tang style beats, 1960s vintage
soul and jazz. The presence of
Younge and his band, Venice
Dawn, is felt on every track of
the album through extended
outros and mid-song break-
downs during which Ghost-
face seems completely content
to step aside and let the music
play.
Still, Twelve Reasons to Die
is a Ghostface Killah album,
and the authentic feel of the
live band backing him only
makes Ghostface sound better.
His wit, storytelling and feroc-
ity are as strong as they have
ever been, and though it's clear
he's somewhat out of his com-
fort zone with the new style at
times - his trademark charisma
seems lost behind the band on
the first two songs, "Rise of the
Black Suits" and "The Center of
Attraction."
But when he finds his groove,
he's unstoppable. Ghostface
bursts out the gates firing on
the third track, "I Declare
War," an opera-wailing, organ-
laced tale of his conquering the
DeLuca family.
Though surrounded by
ornate production and atten-
tion worthy Wu-Tang member
appearances, Ghostface makes
sure to stick to the storyline of
the album. He falls in love with
the Boss's daughter on "The
Center of Attraction," and then
becomes paranoid about her
allegiance to him on the excel-
lent and grimy "Enemies All
Around Me" featuring the high-
pitched wails of William Hart,
the former lead singer of the
Delfonics.
Tony Starks's suspicions are
confirmed when the Boss's
daughter sells him out on the
seventh track, "An Unexpected

Call (The Set Up)." However,
this is far from the end.
On "The Rise of Ghostface
Killah," maybe the best song
on the album, RZA narrates
how the DeLuca family pressed
Tony's remains into 12 vinyl
records. Tony, then, is able
to come back from the dead
and wreak havoc as .Ghostface
Killah. "Medusa stare, my guns
bust in silence / I'm a black vigi-
lante killer, pro violence / It's
the rebirth, born again / Rise
through the vinyl spin," he raps
confidently over Younge's sim-
ple break-beat and noir-film-
sounding guitar strums.
The rest of the album fin-
ishes up Ghostface's rise and
takeover with "The Catstro-
phe," "Murder Spree" and "The
Sure Shot (Parts 1 and 2)." For
the standout posse-cut "Mur-
der Spree," Ghostface, U-God,
Masta Killa, Inspecta Deck and
Killa Sin all take turns detail-
ing the different ways to die,
from guillotines, cyanide, ice
picks and, as Ghostface threat-
ens over the lingering opera in
the background, "Ghost carved
through your skin tissue till the
bone grizzle."
The very same complexity
that makes Twelve Reasons to
Die work is also the album's
biggest potential flaw. Grant-
ed, most listeners who get the
album are die-hard Ghostface
fans that are prepared to dis-
sect his every rhyme, yet for the
common listener, there's a good
chance Ghostface and Younge's
fantastical and noir-drenched
concept won't be understood
completely.
The album ends with the
instrumental coda title track,
which effectively immortal-
izes the legend of Tony Starks
with looping Wu-Tang piano
and slow violins. He has risen
from the grave to reclaim what
is his, and through the haze
of Younge's swirling and wild
synths, you can almost see
Ghostface fading into the dark-
ness in a cloud of cigar smoke,
the wind howling outside his
window, quietly waiting to
pounce on his next challenger.

By KATIE STEEN
Daily MusicEditor
Last fall, San Francisco band
Thee Oh Sees bestowed upon us
an unexpected gift in the form of
the EP Putri-
fiers I. As the
name . might
suggest, the EP Floating
was grimy - but .
also delightful. COffm
Each song was Thee Oh Sees
its own distinct
entity - at times Castle Face
fierce and elec-
tric, other times
lethargic and mellow. While Thee
Oh Sees can be praised for its con-
sistent ability to provide quality
California garage-rock, something
about Putrifiers II stood out as
being evolved and'distinct. When,
months later, Thee Oh Sees provid-
ed us with the single "Minotaur" to
preface their newest LP, Floating
Coffin, the song had a more solemn,
aged feeling to it.
Now, as we consider the EP, and
single and all the bread crumbs
alongthe beach Thee Oh Sees have
left us with - well, those weren't
really helpful at all. No, those were
just a distraction from the rotting
corpse inside the Floating Cof-
fin that has slowly been washing
ashore.
Floating Coffin Segins with a
pretty standard Thee Oh Sees
track, "I Come From the Moun-
tain." It's driven with a relentless
and agitated energy, sprinkled
with the band's classic reverber-
ated shrieks of "oo!"and "woo!" or
some variation. The track eventu-
ally overheats, melting down with
a keyboard-guitar duet. The subse-
quent track, "Toe Cutter - Thumb
Buster," moves slowly and angrily,
fighting against a thick, guitar-
driven mass of sludge. But the track
-like much of Thee Oh Sees'swork
- balances grim fury with the soft
and sugary falsetto of John Dwyer
and Brigid Dawson. The title track,
a frantic, pounding songthat seems
to mimic the panic of being buried
alive, is granted an eerie quality

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Now
Oh See
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then, w
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with th
ing fro:
pleasan
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pick.
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yo1
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ing to F

wn.
e vocals of Dwyer and Daw- to the shock of seeing your younger
ding above fists pounding cousin turn into a sullen, 10-inch-
mahogany. taller teenager who has acquired
here on the album do Thee braces and an army of zits since the
s show off their vocals as last time you saw him at the Christ-
on "No Spell." The song mas dinner table, baby-faced and
nto a shimmering, dreamy bow-tied.
guitars, rollingover angelic Perhaps, though, if the band is
sized vocals. It's smooth just entering its angst-ridden meta-
stine as undisturbed sand, phorical"teenage" days (thebandis
ith a classic Dwyer yelp, the actually quite older than what you
nites in a scorching burst of might expect after listening - or
- but only for around 20 looking- at them),then maybe that
. "No Spell" rolls in and out means they have years and years of
e tide, but remains enchant- developing and maturing to look
m dawn to dusk. But this forward to. "Minotaur," the last
t little track is an oddity on track off Floating Coffin, expresses
g Coffin. Make no mistake all the wisdombut also disenchant-
t; this album has a bone to ment that can come with grow-
ing older. It emerges in the fog, a
languid track filled with weighty
cellos, and tells the tale of the
?aying out namesake mythical beast, trapped
in a life of sickness and meaning-
ir teen years less drudgery and dreams that will
never come true. It's not necessar-
ily sad, but resigned. In the music
video for the song, the Minotaur,
majority of Floating Coffin after failingto win over a damsel in
s of Thee Oh Sees sounding distress, is eventually killed in his
ff about one thing or anoth- sleep.
it doesn't divert much from Perhaps Floating Coffin is a fight
st work beyond the fact that against this sense of defeatthat can
tle more angsty. The album come with growing older, as pos-
ly satisfies and stays true sibilities seem to slip between your
uzzy, wild sound that made fingers without you even noticing.
n love with Thee Oh Sees in . Maybe we are indeed being nailed
t place. But while Putrifiers shut alive in our individual coffins,
have had Thee Oh Sees fans floating along contentedly as it hap-
'forward to an album just as pens, but the wrath contained in
c and fun as the EP, listen- Floating Coffin offers a wakeup call
{oating Coffin is sort of akin against this apathy.

RELEASE DATE- Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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