The Witzard

View Original

Experimental Brooklyn Producer Cloud. Re-emerges As guerrer@ with Debut EP Aggressive Healing Music (Akashik Records & Tapes)


"Hailing from Akasha, Los Angeles, California, the label, focusing on physical limited releases, got it start back in 2015. From Hip-Hop to R&B and now, House. There's a bit of everything for everyone here. The likes of Mndsgn, The Koreatown Oddity (Vivians,) Joyce Wrice, Nanna B, and B. Cool-Aid, to name a few, have contributed releases on this label. There's a sense of a DIY execution here; the sounds and cover art of the releases show it, but don't let that fool you. Nothing subpar here. Now, on their thirteenth release, at the time of this writing. Be sure to follow this eclectic label, for which they never disappoint."

- Jerry Z. (@niceguyjerry)


guerrer@ (@wristgameonchalant) is a Brooklyn-based Experimental artist and producer, who was formerly known as Cloud. or CLOUD. BEATS. Cloud. self-released an assortment of nine projects between 2008-12 and how now signed with Akashik Records & Tapes; a label specializing in limited physical releases, based in Akasha, Los Angeles, California and collectively run by Alima, Sofie & Ringgo AKA Stones Throw/LEAVING RECORDS' signee Mndsgn. "Hey, y'all. It's been a minute and I've gone [through] some changes, but I'm still here and still creating," Cloud. (@cloudinstrumentals) posted on Facebook back on March 24, 2018. "I'm going under a new alias now, guerrer@, which is a gender neutralization of an ancestral name of mine," guerrer@ continued. Guerrero/a is, actually, a Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian last name or, according to Ancestry.com, a "nickname for an aggressive person or for a soldier, from an agent derivative of guerra "war" or a "warrior," according to UrbanDictionary.com. Musically, there really isn't much difference, to my ear, at least, between Cloud. and guerrer@'s separate bodies of work. Although, I would liken guerrer@'s just-released debut EP, Aggressive Healing Music, to something stylistically akin to Stones Throw's own wildman James Pants and musical enigma Jai Paul.


Last month, Akashik Records treated us to a teaser track, "convalescence pt 2," which is now the opener to guerrer@'s debut EP, Aggressive Healing Music. It's a bit of an Electronic/Hip-Hop/R&B mash-up that anchors the album and sets the president for Cloud.'s musical re-birth as guerrer@. "falling" is a bit more glitchy and Electro-Rap-leaning and, although, it lasts for less that 2 minutes, evokes vibes of both The Postal Service and newly-revitalized LCD Soundsystem. "falling" seamlessly blends into Track #3, "disillusion / dissolution," making me think the entirety of Aggressive Healing Music was recorded as one long, continuous track and then, broken up into separate tracks for inclusion within this very EP. "disillusion / dissolution," "will love remain," and "angel" fill out the second half of guerrer@'s debut EP and collectively, add up to nearly 15 minutes-worth of Aggressive Healing Music's total runtime. guerrer@'s Aggressive Healing Music is now available to stream or download on a Name-Your-Price basis on Bandcamp, while vinyl is currently available for pre-order and is expected to drop by or before 10/12/18 with 100% of artist proceeds benefiting The Brooklyn Community Bail Fund.


"guerrer@ represents the revolution that must occur (and keep occurring) within oneself, so that it may also, occur outside oneself. of looking backwards and forwards, simultaneously and always. of accounting for present and potential material makeup. of accounting for the contemporary abhorrent and luminous actions of the flesh. a pledge towards infinitely malleating—and, thus, the necessary deliberate re-configuration of—identity. the necessary deliberateness of movement and becoming. the possibility of convalescence. in so many words: faith, hope, affliction, and anger, daggered at oppression, wherever it may be found."

- guerrer@ (Akashik Records & Tapes)