Run It Back: Revisiting STATIC BROTHERS' Blood-curdling 2016 "Glitch-Hop/Noise-Rap" OBSTETRIC TRASH EP & Career Retrospective (U DONT DESERVE THIS BEAUTIFUL ART)
Static Brothers' Facebook Story fittingly describes their unique style of music as "bizarro spaced out drone trip-hop based out of Philadelphia, PA" and later, labels their Genre as "DIY GRIT-HOP NOISE-RAP" or "Blackhole Shoegaze Noise-Rap." Joe Hughes (DJ DM) and emcees A Dead Fox & Riff Quantum founded Static Brothers back around 2009-10 while attending college together and spent a few years conceptualizing what the group should be and collectively taking part in freestyle sessions, verse-writing, and brainstorming; Static Brothers' first official show as "a trisecting Noise-form" was in 2011 when JE Double F booked them for an Illogic show in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A Dead Fox parted ways with the group sometime between 2015-17, although, he still appears on their latest release, OBSTETRIC TRASH EP. Static Brothers quietly released their 2013 debut Ro6o6i6le on New Jersey-based "records, tapes, and 'zines" label Quone City Press. Static Brothers then unleashed their second release, OBSTETRIC TRASH EP, on fellow Philadelphian Darko The Super's U DONT DESERVE THIS BEAUTIFUL ART (UDDTBA) label towards the end of July 2016. Will Mellor of HIVELORDS recorded, mixed, and mastered OBSTETRIC TRASH in its entirety.
"Considering our style and sound, Will's expertise from recording numerous Metal and Punk bands from the Philadelphia area was valuable in capturing the intensity of our music," Static Brothers wrote within a recent Twitter-sent statement. Riff Quantum & DJ DM readily list Dälek, Death Grips, El-P, and Aesop Rock as sources of influence, as well as Philly-based "Queer Thrash Punk" band +HIRS+, JE Double F, and Baltimore spitter Height Keech. OBSTETRIC TRASH EP is currently available from UDDTBA's Bandcamp page in either digital download or pink cassette formats, both priced at $5.00 or more. Ro6o6i6le is currently available for FREE download at Static-Brothers.com by simply clicking on the "music" tab, as well as well as "a sweet old, old rough track hidden on the page" (a few new live recordings are coming to the site soon). Static Brothers are tentatively planning to release OBSTETRIC TRASH EP's follow-up this upcoming summer, as well as a 360° VR animated video that should be coming soon. Riff Quantum & DJ DM recently submitted a Noise-Rap track, titled "electorate onset," for a 35-track Noise for Hire comp. assembled by Jackson, New Jersey's own Noise enthusiast Nergali Erinyes/Shadow Figures. It appears as though OBSTETRIC TRASH EP is likely the best and arguably, most fully-formed place to start, but it seems Static Brothers have been diligently concocting infectious Noise-Rap long before Death Grips made it a bit more commercially accessible and garnered wide-spread acclaim!
"OBSTETRIC TRASH [EP] was constructed over the course of a few years, experimenting and evaluating new songs during live performances. Songs were added, dropped, or edited depending on how effective we felt they performed live, with the final tracklist ultimately floating to the top over time. Using this approach, we felt it was appropriate to record live, in order to obtain a sound as close to the live performance as possible. Tracks such as "We Made You" and "Wet Photophores" are built from scratch, so there are certain nuances to those tracks that are different each time they are performed, which was a challenge when recording versions to be set in stone.
On OBSTETRIC TRASH, we experimented with different compositions to create interesting song structures. Rap songs don't have to always be four minutes long with three verses and two hooks in between... When you have a lot of material that you're really hyped about, your first instinct can be to play all of it for 40 minutes or longer because you want everyone to hear how awesome all of it is, but this can actually be counterproductive. Recently, our intention has been to pack as much into 15-17 minutes as possible, rip the crowds faces off, and then, leave them wanting more, which we feel has been a successful approach, so far."
- Riff Quantum & DJ DM (Static Brothers)
"Samurai Banana talks about a new co-worker and his weird relationship with Hip-Hop, then plays a stacked line-up of that dope sh!t... PLAYING TRACKS BY: Elucid, Lushlife, Moka Only, Kid Koala, [Static Brothers,] Graves 33 & Diógenes, and more."