No Passion, All Technique

NOTS’s Very Own Music Round-Up

Nov 11, 2024

I don’t think I’ve actually explained it before. I should, but do I really want to? For those who’ve not been tapping in with their reading eyes turned on, the name of my semi-monthly roundup is No Passion, All Technique. Put simply, it’s a private exercise in brevity and a public exercise in putting you all on game as fast as possible. Most often, I try to limit myself to just one or two sentences per item. Sometimes, I go rogue. I can’t help it!

There’s something to be said about ultra-short form, though. There’s no time or space to indulge. The only thing to do is state the facts and get the hell out of there. It’s not easy! But it is necessary. So that’s what No Passion, All Technique is about: me getting in there and putting my nose to the grindstone. I have my fun, but I don’t luxuriate.

Plus, this shit needs to be short! The homies can barely read, and they need to work together to get through the majority of my output. Really, it’s my gift to you.

As for the title’s origin, I don’t think I’ll show my hand. It’s my special secret, so I’ll leave you with this instead: new NOTS shirts coming soon! Consider this the preorder. Bang my line.

REQUIRED LISTENING

TAPES

Enemies at All Times by Sunbloc

Every day we stray further from God’s light, so it should come as no surprise that I’ve been listening to less and less hardcore this year. Sad but true. That is, until this tape from Rochester, New York’s Sunbloc came along. Despite a truly awful introductory track, Enemies at All Times is fast, fun, and creatively daring. I’ve not heard a band this exciting since early-days Dazed (shoutout Buffalo) and Clique (¡Viva la Clika!). Hell, the 69-second “Baggage Claim” hit me like a brick shithouse (of fun)! The whole package re-ignited the hardcore within me, and I now find myself in a frenzy, starving for more fresh shit. More on that later.

WATCH THE THRONE by Jaeychino & ARP / The Strikers by ST6 JodyBoof

Crank meets evilgiane-type beats (and actual evilgiane beats)? Count me in. Between the three tapes, there are 34 songs, and they’re all perfect. Seriously, Jaeychino and JodyBoof deserve rap stardom immediately, and it looks like they’re about to break through. This shit is skittering, triumphant, quotable, and — I’m hesitant to say this because I love making fun of people who do… but I can’t lie and will say it anyway — beautiful. Don’t sleep.

If that’s not enough, these guys seem to love television. I mean, Jaeychino has the hilarious, love-y “Bridgerton Sex Scene,” and JodyBoof has “Family Guy” featuring Jaeychino! We all eat.

Casts of a Dreamer (Cassette Version) by 454

Am I lucky?? I didn’t manage to get my hands on a Casts of a Dreamer cassette, but I did manage to get them on a cassette-to-MP3 rip (sorry), and that has served me well. I’ve been championing 454 since I first tried my hand at this writing shit, and I don’t plan on ever stopping. Everything he releases is a hit, and I’ll sing it to the rooftops with every single drop.

Everyone says this, but I’ll parrot it — 454 does this shit with no effort. I like that. And Casts of a Dreamer is just that. At its core, the tape is a distillation of a genius’s lucid dream. On a dime, 454 flits from Florida fast to his fudgy and sweet take on Memphis horrorcore, and he jumps from backpack rap to his trademarked sound just as easily. The tape presents us with a version of 454 that we’ve never seen, freer and breezier than anyone could have ever dreamt.

The only thing missing from Casts of a Dreamer is a Three Knee Deep-assisted flip into a hardcore bounce house, as an homage to the formative Orlando mixed bill performances. Then would Casts of a Dreamer be perfect. It’s whatever, though. Timely and well-placed features from Pig the Gemini, Atelye Marc, and Tutu more than make up for this oversight.

If you need more, go listen to Atelye Marc’s Magnetic Garden from June. It’s similarly magical.

marketResearch by dolo2000

Every time a roundup rolls around, it feels like dolo2000 comes a-knocking. And it just so happens that he’s leveled up again in that short span of time. The recipe’s still the same — mix love-drunk everyday trials and tribulations with varicolored instrumentals of the hardest degree — but the bake time has increased. The three-ish months between The Imagining Project and marketResearch were relatively quiet, but the incubation period immediately has proven necessary for Dolo to rise even higher. He has managed to neither jump the gun nor miss the window of opportunity by releasing a tape that is jagged around the edges and soft in the middle. Bon appétit!

Flipping (EP) by Candy

On the coattails of Candy’s Relapse-released full-length It’s Inside You — a remarkable extreme-via-hardcore record in its own right — the Richmond, Virginia outfit has returned to their roots and dropped an extended play through Triple B that is nothing but pure, unadulterated hardcore. It’s called Flipping, and it’s perfect. Inexplicably, nearly all of the songs break the two-minute mark (a bit long for a guy like me), but it’s good shit! No complaints here.

TRACKS

“Close” by Elias Rønnenfelt and FAUZIA

Heavy Glory, Elias Rønnefelt’s first foray as a solo artist, is tinged with Americana, soft rock, and melancholy, and this sickly sweet track cements the album’s tone perfectly. This is a deeply impressive debut from the Iceage frontman. Do not miss it.

“Freak Mode” by the Tubs

Don’t let the title scare you. The latest single from the Tubs, better known as Wales’s Finest, is a subdued take on good, old-fashioned rock and roll about a man who has relapsed on a love—a tale as old as time. My dear friend said that it sounds like Pearl Jam if they used their inside voices, but I disagree. They sound more like a tasteful, tactful version of Rusted Root, but with an edge that the Pittsburgh outfit could never possess.

“Kold Flow” by Shaudy Kash and Top$ide

If Shaudy Kash didn’t have such a deep voice, I would’ve thought that “Kold Flow” was a new Suga Free song.

Speaking of Suga Free, listen to July’s collaboration with Sporty. It’s a bit of fun!

“Tetanus” by Scarab

Philadelphia’s Scarab, fronted by Year of the Knife’s Tyler Mullen, is a terrifying sludgy take on hardcore, and after heroically releasing an unfathomable four tapes in less than one year, they’ve managed to become the band to watch, not just in Philly but in the entire scene. “Tetanus” is proof.

“Westside Story” by Los

Los will always have a story to tell, but “Westside Story,” off his brand-spanking-new 50 State Shawty, takes a welcome turn toward soulful introspection as the Detroit rapper considers where he came from and where he’s going, spinning a tale that only he could.

“Natural Habitat” by Chuckyy

Chuckyy is generally considered to be Lil Durk’s protégé, but if early October’s Bloodbathh Vol. 1 is any indication, the student has become the master. “Natural Habitat” is Chuckyy’s thesis. The young Chicagoan loves beats that sound like they were ripped from a church livestream, and he’s more than happy to doubletime his delivery as he rips them to shreds. The most astonishing thing about “Natural Habitat” is that despite the extremely sparse bell tolls and bass hits, Chuckyy still manages to lay waste to his surroundings, scorched-earth style.

“Wheelchair” by 392 Lil Head

This came out in March, but it’s new to me! I’ve never heard someone rap on a beat that sounds like the alarm of a sinking submarine, and I’m not sure that it’ll ever happen again. Enjoy it while it lasts!