Hymie's Basement – Queen City Sounds and Art

Father Baker imbues “The Downhill Chill” with an air of bravado in the face of resignation in bracing for the inevitable turn of fortune in one’s life, especially in the long term and the limited time we all have in life to attempt to do something meaningful or at least truly desirable with our lives while we can. The production by CEE GEE and Camouflage Monk of Griselda Records loops a haunting guitar part and swells of strings and a hypnotic beat really cloaks the track in a sense of menace and anxiety. And yet Father Baker’s refrain of “chill the fuck out and breathe” is like a mantra out of focusing on inevitable cycles that you see coming when “all the shit flows downhill.” The sample that closes out the song wherein a speaker talks about the social conditioning we receive in life and how individuality, and really creativity and imagination, are discouraged and often beaten out of people in various ways and that most people “don’t have enough so you become watchers of game shows and things like that.” This song appears to be an attempt to at least remind the artist and listeners that it doesn’t have to be that way even when headed into middle age and beyond and that awareness is one of the first steps to change and establishing better habits of mind. Fans of Anticon projects like Deep Puddle Dynamics and early Atmosphere or the likes of cLOUDDEAD or Hymie’s Basement will find much to enjoy here. Listen to “The Downhill Chill” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the recently released Towers EP and follow Father Baker at the links below.

Father Baker on Facebook

Father Baker on Instagram

fatherbakerknows.com

Rota’s spoken words song “How Not To Write A Poem About Depression” recalls the contemplative style of Hymie’s Basement. But rather than that blend of nascent 2000s indie rock and alternative hip-hop, the sounds that accompany the words here seem to have the aesthetic of what might be described as time lapse beat making with the environmental sounds one might hear on a walk Rota takes to clear his head of the nervous energy and existential crisis imbued, daydreamy self-examination. Various tones run through along with percussive sounds that change throughout the piece so that one can’t really pigeonhole the rhythm to a specific style, rather it mirrors the free verse structure of the lines of poetry. One hears thoughts on very immediate and relatable strategies for holding it together and staying focused like trying to be well in order to keep going and “hoping not to be broken just open and candid.” Rota considers the subtle but pervasive power of loneliness as an aspect of depression that Prozac can dull but not completely vanquish. But perhaps the most perceptive and poignant parts are when Rota discusses the overused metaphor of artist or any human as a phoenix being reborn after burning out and how that cognitive construct can limit your ability to reconceptualize your life in healthier and more sustainable ways even though it’s better to be “more phoenix than zombie, more rib cage than metaphor.” The organic structure of the song flows in a way that seems to reinvent itself at every turn like so many of those turn of the century alternative rappers did while adopting soundscapes that more creatively and accurately established and complimented mood in a manner synergistic. Rota seems intimately aware of the need for verbal precision and in capturing the different pathways the mind of the thoughtful and mindful person follows it seems like he gathered potentially divergent ideas into a coherent if informal statement. Listen to “How Not To Write A Poem About Depression” on YouTube and connect with Rota at links below.