Last heard of raiding his dad’s vinyl collection for 2009’s epic samplefest Evil In The Mirror, Bostonian rapper/producer Will C is back with Adieu Or Die and it looks like he’s once again managed to get the keys to the study with a single purpose in mind. This time around, it seems, he was just after the old man’s Beach Boys collection. Now, it’s a well-known piece of musical history that towards the end of the nineteen-sixties two of the greatest creative forces ever in pop were going head-to-head to see who could do the most drugs and push the boundaries of sound beyond the edges of the known universe. I speak of course of the titanic game of one-upmanship between Lennon-McCartney on the one hand and the Beach Boys’ creative powerhouse, Brian Wilson, on the other which ended with Wilson stranded in the deepest reaches of his own mind for thirty years talking to the king of the potato people. Vocal-harmony-obsessed, if only poor acid-fried Wilson had taken note of funk rhythms that were going on around him even as his mind broke its fetters and sailed off across the multiverse…he might have trounced the English duo. Enter Will C forty odd years later…
Adieu Or Die is for the most part beats-based instrumental soundscapes and far from focussing on the singing for which the Beach Boys were so famous, the album mainly makes use of the music which underpinned Wilson and co’s vocals. C has raided everything from Pet Sounds onwards so we’re well into the era when Wilson was off with the fairies – as anyone who’s ever listened to Surf’s Up (an album that has absolutely fuck all to do with surfing or the pop optimism of early sixties pop gems like Surfin’ USA) or is aware of late-sixties tracks with names like She’s Goin Bald (no, really) will know. The LP features one or two contributions from underground rapper and fellow Bostonian 7L too – though don’t be expecting full-on hip-hop. His contributions are low in the mix to add to the hopped-up ambience which also includes soundbites of Wilson himself commenting on his – er – journey. Having thus harnessed the Wilson weirdness there was only really one direction for Will C to take and take it he does, sailing off in the direction marked ‘trippiest’ hop with every apparent intention of rocking up at the sky castle ruled by – well – the king of the potato people. Also, play the album backwards and you can hear a grumpy voice on a loop grumbling, “William! If I find out you’ve been in my study again, I‘ll tan your damn hide.” Missing the summer? Need some music to chill to? If your life has been short of blissed-out ambience recently – you’ll be wanting a copy of this. Turn on, tune, and download the whole thing for nothing below but feel free to preview the good vibrations on the vid and players below that:
One Response
Will C.
I was able to download of “Adieu Or Die”, a few weeks ago.
Brilliant work. The nuances, it’s all about the nuances, which is tres cool.
Frank O’Toole