Tag: Sabotage

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Angry Blackmen Share Woozy “Sabotage”

Chicago-based hip-hop duo Angry Blackmen — Quentin Branch and Brian Warren — features members, who individually spent their time stretching their creative arms and tapping into different sounds for a couple of years, before Warren suggested that they collaborate together as a duo towards the end of 2016. 

Branch and Warren exploded into the underground and experimental hip-hop scenes with their debut single “OK!,” a track that showcased the pair’s adept ability to spit bars. Their second single “Riot!” was a near-complete shift in sound that remained tethered to the sonic foundation that they’d first built.

Their debut EP, 2019’s Talkshit! was released to attention and acclaim, before eventually catching the attention of Philadelphia-based progressive label Deathbomb Arc, known for its avant and eclectic roster featuring releases from Death Grips, JPEGMAFIA, JOVM mainstays clipping., Julia Holter, U.S. Girls and others. 

Deathbomb Arc went on to release the duo’s full-length debut, 2020’s HEADSHOTS! and its follow-up EP, 2021’S REALITY!, both of which saw the duo expanding their range sonically while further honing their craft. 

The Chicago-based duo’s highly-anticipated 11-song, Formants-produced sophomore album The Legend of ABM is slated for a January 26, 2024 release through Deathbomb Arc. The album reportedly sees Branch and Warren spinning tales of depression, existentialism, self-reflection, tragedy and survival that are unvarnished, lived-in and downright ugly paired with soundscapes that seem to come from a dystopian, apocalyptic future, informed by our hellish present. The result: Two talented emcees providing a passionate yet introspective look at the world at large, with their raw, pathos-infused lyrics educating the listener of our increasingly dystopian, fucked up, apocalyptic world — from the eyes, hearts and perspective of young Black men.

Clocking in at about 30-minutes, the album thematically is a coming of age narrative centered around Black men navigating America, inspired by Richard Matheson’s 1954 post-apocalyptic horror novel I Am Legend. “For us, this album is kinda like our villain origin story, a bedtime story and introduction to those who have and haven’t heard of us yet. Black men have historically been the boogie men of America, so I think it’s fitting that we tell our own legend.”

Last month, I wrote about “Stanley Kubrick,” a song that featured Branch’s and Warren’s dizzyingly rapid fire, dexterous, braggadocio-filled bars and verses over a minimalist, industrial-like production that paired skittering trap beats with stormy and uneasy bursts of feedback and distortion. Sonically, “Stanley Kubrick” seamlessly meshed trap with the slow-burning and creeping dread of There Existed an Addiction to Blood-era clipping.

The Legend of ABM‘s second and latest single “Sabotage” features Branch and Warren trading rapid fire, dexterous, densely worded yet introspective and deeply personal bars and verses describing their love/hate relationship with modern, American capitalism and their struggles with mental health — which of course, is often largely informed by one’s own struggle to survive. And as a result, the song sees its two emcees vacillating between righteous outrage and completely despair over a glitchy and woozy production featuring tweeter and woofer rattling 808, skittering beats and noisy arpeggiated synth glitch.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chiara Foschiani Shares Sultry “Sabotage”

Rising Paris-born-and-based singer/songwriter and pianist, Chiara Foschiani can trace the origins of her music career to when she started piano lessons at eight. The Parisian singer/songwriter and musician started singing when she was 13. She joined a number of local bands, performing on small stages and local music festivals before she started writing her own songs.

Back in 2021, Foschiani released her debut single Trouble Maker featured:

  • “Queen of Disaster”

  • “My Glass of Wine,” a remarkably Portishead-like track

  • “God Damn,” a sickly produced, straightforward pop confection rooted in earnest and lived-in lyricism that belies her relative youth

The young Parisian artist’s sophomore EP is slated for a May release. The EP’s first single “Sabotage” is a bold step forward for Foschiani. Featuring wobbling low end, skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios and enormous, shout-along worthy hooks paired with the young Parisian artist’s self-assured and sultry delivery, “Sabotage” may the most dance floor friendly song she has released to date. But under the slick production is a deeply personal, lived-in story of a narrator who, much like the song’s creator, experienced terrible harassment, survived — and has been trying to regain their confidence and power.

Directed by Mephisto, the accompanying video further emphasizes the song’s central themes: We see Foschiani getting molested and oppressed by dark, murky characters and forces beyond her understanding. But much like the Phoenix, she goes through a fiery rebirth.