When I first started following musical acts for real around
the year 2000, my fandom came in waves. Obviously, there was the Nu-Metal
explosion of the New Millennium of which I was gleefully on-board. My mother
introduced me to the hits of the 80s, birthing a love for pop music that
endures to this day. My grandfather spun countless vinyl records of the
two-step anthems from the 60s and 70s. The recurring theme here is outside
influence. Whether it be my friends or my family, there was always a guiding
hand to help me discover new music. When the time came for me to mark my own fandom,
I happened across a group with all the righteous fury of Public Enemy’s
guerilla rap and the most slamming chords of any band in the world.
Rage Against The Machine was the band. If you are reading
this and don’t quite remember the group in their active years, the name is all
you need to know. Selling out arenas is great. Playing to 100,000 at a festival
is awesome. Yet still: not one note was played in anything other than utter
furious disobedience. Zack De La Rocha, former frontman of the band, has
continued this by writing music in vocal features in the years since RATM last
played together. Now, guitarist Tom Morello has produced his own solo project –
his first in many years.
When I read up about the making of this record, I kept
thinking of another one: Common’s Universal
Mind Control from 2008. Musically, they aren’t all that similar. In
conception, they are almost the same. Common was inspired to make his album after
a lengthy vacation in France helped introduce him to the House Music and EDM (Electronic
Dance Music) scene. UMC was billed as
the future of hip-hop and for my money (literally, having bought it) this is all
true. Its warbled and industrial sound preempted a wave of mood-rap ventures: Yeezus from Kanye West; Camp from Childish Gambino; the early
work of Travis Scott.
It’s 2018 and EDM is far more than the niche genre it was a
decade ago. It has injected every facsimile of pop music; not even the most
basic of Top 40 tunes can go without a beat drop or synth cord progression. For
The Atlas Underground, we see Morello
align himself with these EDM sensibilities and combine them with his own talent
for writing, and playing, his own screechy, metallic riffs. Disclaimer time: no,
this isn’t a case of ‘Hello, fellow kids’ by the veteran musician to get people
to buy his album. If anything, this project – with the boom-bap truther anthem
“We Don’t Need You” – will be a repellant.
From the first three songs you will be able to discern if The Atlas Underground is your speed. “Rabbit’s
Revenge” for sure is not a soft listen. Two icons of the Dirty South rap scene –
Big Boi and Killer Mike – team up on this Bassnectar-produced track and throw
down two furious verses on the cultural divide and mistrust of the Black Community
toward the police force writ large. Big Boi begins:
There’s always a punk
motherfucker/poppin’ that weak shit
Thug thumb, Internet
gangsters/not on no street shit
Where we come from/we
don’t fuck with no polices
We pay their salary/and
they pay us back with mistreatment
Killer Mike follows this up with commentary on how
minorities are disproportionately targeted by patrols. He references Trayvon
Martin of Florida and Mike Brown of Missouri. Not nearly the only two young Black
men killed via extra-legal force; no doubt the most famous. Two of many victims
(including Sandra Bland, referenced in verse one) of a system designed to
decimate an entire people and break their spirit. This song is a call to arms
above all. Wouldn’t you know? “It ain’t no fun when the rabbit’s got the gun.”
Right, Wabbit?
The hip-hop presence on this record was expected from
Morello and didn’t disappoint. He recruited a solid line-up of MCs that brought
a righteous fire to the booth. Chicago native Vic Mensa nicely complimented
Morello’s signature style on “We Don’t Need You.”
Ooh, I can stand my
ground to this shit
Tom Morello and Vic
Mensa/we on time with this shit
Militant mindset/nine-millimeter
complex
Two middle fingers/to
the killers in the Congress
Start off with a reference to the gun law that got Trayvon
Martin legally murdered and end with a dig at the Legislative Branch of US
Government which is timely at almost any point in history, but especially now
in the midst of the longest government shutdown in US history. An angry damn
song this is, but that doesn’t stop it from being a head-bopper. The
oscillation of the industrial beat will have you moving in time, reminiscent of
the RATM turns of old.
There are two female features on this LP. The first is K.
Flay – one of the more acclaimed indie artists of the past ten years. She’s a
self-produced, multi-instrumentalist from Cook County, Illinois who can rap and
sing and pretty much every other thing a musician would need to do. “Lucky One,”
the track she features on is a jaunty cut with a bouncy alt-rock vibe that
sounds like it was produced just for her. Maybe it was, because even the subject
matter should be familiar to anyone that’s visited her discography.
Oh, I’m a piece of
dirt
Caught in a spiral,
dead on arrival/make it hurt
Oh, I’m a tragic man
Love is a card game,
head full of heartache/it’s all a part of the plan
“Are you a sucker or a lucky one?” she asks. When you consider
her path to success – from leaving a toxic relationship and skirting
homelessness to having her music featured in major motion pictures – it would
be generous to call K. Flay anything but. Lucky only to be seen. There’s
nothing accidental about how good she is. The very same should be said about
the second female MC featured. An enigma she is.
She hails from Brooklyn and performs as ‘Leikeli47.’ Always
with her face covered. She hasn’t disclosed her name or age but has still
released plenty of music. Not much else is known about her other than the fact
that she’s pretty good. In “Roadrunner,” she crafts a yarn, Slick Rick style, of
a migrant’s journey to these United States.
I be damn I gave my
last
To a coyote
To get me ‘cross the
border
Far too many women and children and in between fall victim
to trafficking schemes in exchange for the possibility of a better life in
America. If one was willing to take this issue on a case-by-case basis it would
be clear immediately who those people are. Some of them are dangerous, but some
of them are victims.
One hour out of
Guadalajara
No pit stops even
though/the engine gettin’ hotter
Surviving off my own
sweat/I drink it out of bottles
I see a lot of y’all
parched/and that’s the fucking problem
Nothing on this album shook me more than those bars right
there. This is the point I’ve brought up anytime I’ve heard even a mention of a
“crisis” at the Mexico border. Most people don’t know, but how would they if
they don’t care? I watched a full documentary special of a small crew following
a troupe of migrants. This was years and years before the mass exodus from Central
America that occurred in late 2018.
This may not come as much of a shock, but the path taken to
even make it to the border is so fucking dangerous. Before anyone can even reach
the “wall” they have to dodge numerous hazards including the so-called coyotes.
People are run down, pursued, kidnapped, and yes, killed all in the course of
the thousands of miles they travel. All so they can seek entry and asylum to a
country they have been told will take them in with open arms if they are
earnest about being productive. And they always are.
This piece makes it out like the album is wholly political and
that isn’t the case. It’s where most of the substance is, just not nearly the
end. As noted, Morello collaborated on production of this album with some main
stays in the EDM scene. The legendary Bassnectar; Australian Dubstep duo Knife
Party; and world-famous DJ Steve Aoki who lends his skills for “How Long.”
And how long/can we
dance around
The hungry mouths,
the burning streets?
And how long/can we
drown them out
With lights and sound,
while bombs fall at our feet?
This tune is performed by Tim McIlrath, vocalist from the
band Rise Against. Casual music streamers might not discern this easily; for
the rest, a peek at the production notes reveals a who’s-who of the modern
music scene. No surprise, as Tom Morello is a Triple OG and his rock roots run
so impossibly deep. He, Damon Alburn, and a few select others have the clout to
scroll through the rolodex, choose three numbers at random and say, “Help me
make an album, dude!” only for an album to appear from the ether months later.
“How Long” has a protracted build-up driven by that classic
crunch of Morello’s guitar pedals. Couple this with the beat drop and pulsating
rhythm of Aoki’s production, you can only assume Morello won’t be done playing
massive festival crowds anytime soon. The song is fun yet is not without its
questions.
In America, we are in the middle of the longest government
shutdown in history. The Coast Guard is unfunded. The Department of Homeland
Security is unfunded. Airports are understaffed leading to hours of delays and
terminated flights. Air traffic controllers are working without pay, even as the
industry prepares for a massive turnover. Both the Pilot and Flight Attendant
Unions have released a joint statement with the NATCA detailing the increased
danger of flying without proper funding. With no end in sight to the impasse,
the day may come when the system simply breaks. Even after the shutdown ends,
the aviation industry may well be crippled for years to come.
What of the individuals working through this? Grown adults
who can’t feed themselves. Parents that can’t feed their children. The
recipients of SNAP benefits who will no longer be able to once that program runs out of funds soon. How
long can we dance around the hungry mouths? How many missed meals does it take?
What is critical mass for innocent people seeing their family suffer before
they take matters into their own hands? What happens when the system breaks?
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