Step right up, earthlings, as we once again delve into the extraterrestrial escapades of Ahulabrum. Last week, we dissected the second demo of Ahulabrum, and guess what? They cranked up the atmosphere like they were playing at Area 51 at a moonless night. But hold onto your tinfoil hats because, on this demo, they decided to go further and even drop the drums – this is pure perfection. If you’re not equipped with a lightsaber to cut through the thick atmosphere of sonic wizardry, you might get lost in the otherworldly sonic abyss.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any spookier, there are interspersed ambient tracks featuring spare riffs, bass rumbling, and UFO-themed samples of people talking about their encounters. Because nothing says “out of this world” like a dash of extraterrestrial ambiance.
These tracks presented here aren’t just cooked up in a studio; they’re a concoction of field recordings, electrical effects, feedback experimentation, and the mystical resonance of ancient stereo equipment. It’s like a sonic séance conducted to honor one of the strangest encounters of mid-twentieth century UFO lore.
You heard right, The Phantom of Flatwoods isn’t your run-of-the-mill album; it’s a concept album, a musical odyssey wholly fixated on the Flatwoods incident. According to interviews, the main guy from Ahulabrum even embarked on a field trip to Flatwoods to record some ambience. No close encounters, mind you, but the resulting recordings went right into this demo.
Ahulabrum did it again, dishing out another dose of audio awesomeness with a release that’s so iconic, even your grandma’s hipster neighbor knows about it. Clocking in at only 14 minutes, you’ll be left panting for more.
We’re back, folks, with the intergalactic rock stars of the UFO Black Metal underground: Ahulabrum. So, buckle up your tin foil hats as we continue to delve deep into their discography.
In this thrilling sequel to their first demo, Ahulabrum doesn’t just crank up the atmosphere – they throw a full-blown black-tie Illuminati gala. They’ve finally decided to grace us with the reverb we’ve all been yearning for since their debut effort. It’s like they realized, “Hey, our music is already out of this world; why not add a touch of intergalactic echo to make it even spacier?” Bravo, Ahulabrum, for giving the people what they didn’t know they needed – a sound so ethereal it makes angels (that are in reality aliens – see pt. 1) question their celestial playlist. This whole demo is like a sonic séance in your dingy basement. You’re down there, casually playing with your ham radio (because who needs regular hobbies when you can communicate with beings from beyond?), and after a day of tuning into Russian number stations, you stumble upon this on some forbidden frequency. It’s the kind of musical revelation that makes you question whether your basement has secretly become a portal to the cosmic unknown.
Walls of tremolo-picked guitars hit you like a sonic tidal wave, a barrage of sound that makes you question whether you’re at a metal concert or caught in the crossfire of an interstellar battle. The drumming? Oh, it’s a delicacy, barely audible, and exclusively composed of low-end non-blastbeat bass drums. Bass licks emerge like unexpected plot twists in an episode of the X-Files, making you wonder if Mulder and Scully are about to pop out from behind the amplifier. Muffled groans, the kind that would make ghosts jealous, serenade you in the background, creating an ambiance that’s part extraterrestrial séance, part black metal opera. And if that isn’t enough to make your auditory senses tingle, radio samples kick in, giving you a front-row seat to the strangest frequencies the universe has to offer. It’s like tuning into the cosmic equivalent of a pirate radio station. In case you were skeptical about the authenticity of these sonic escapades, fear not! According to interviews (because even extraterrestrial musicians do press), Ahulabrum took it a step further. They threw in some childhood tape recordings they made with deconstructed radios.
So, strap in, fellow truth-seekers, because “The Transitivity of Strangeness” isn’t just rich in atmosphere; it can be considered a conceptual journey into the heart of UFO incidents, with every track named after dates and locations of UFO encounters like “September 12th, 1952, Flatwoods, WV.” It’s like Ahulabrum giving you a crash course in extraterrestrial history, with the syllabus including encounters that are semi-famous, almost famous, and maybe famous if you squint a little. After the brief runtime of 12 minutes, you will question if the guy next door is actually an alien spider in disguise. Spoiler alert: he probably is.
A highly anticipated debut project from one of drill’s most exciting upcoming artists this past year. Chinx has sort of acted as the main antagonist to Suspect, with Chinx rebutting claims from Suspects songs, re-using Suspect’s song titles as disses and by pointing out that actually, Suspects gang has suffered quite a few losses as well. The most well knownincident being Suspects friend known as Blitz getting shot in the head with a shotgun by Chinx himself several years ago.
It also certainly didn’t help that Suspect went to jail right after Chinx burst onto the scene in January of 2022. Since Suspect hastily released his (incredible) album after his arrest, Chinx has pretty much had a free shot at telling his side of the story now that his main rivals were either in jail (Suspect, Broadday) or relatively inactive in music (T.Scam, Strika). This on top of his obvious talent allowed him to quickly make his way to being an established name in the drill scene in 2022.
Which, after several hard-hitting singles this past year, brings us to his debut project, which in my opinion has his best qualities on display. At the same time, it also suffers from several pitfalls that are often observed on the debut projects of an artist who is highly praised for the quality on display on their singles.
By now, Chinx’ sound is pretty familiar to me and it just doesn’t have the versatility to keep things interesting for 47 minutes with only three features, which are all bundled up on one song. The bangers certainly bang, but the few introspective/romantic-ish cuts near the middle of the tracklist are not enough to keep things intriguing to me. The few slower songs, while lyrically they do show a bare-minimum level of variety to Chinx’ personality, musically they don’t quite hit the spot. The track Imaginary Girl, where he raps about the kind of girl he’d like to be with, loses a lot of its meaning when a few tracks later we hear him say he doesn’t need a girl.
I know it’s wrong to compare this project to Suspects debut from last year, since they’re very much each their own artist. However, one can’t help but appreciate the effort Suspect put into making his album sound like a cohesive project rather than a collection of songs. A handful of features also would have gone a long way when it comes to keeping things interesting, especially with how limiting the genre of drill can be in terms of variety.
That aside, the tracks that are on here are for the most part on par with the quality people have come to expect of Chinx. He absolutely delivers in terms of his bars, flows, delivery and beat selection. Most of the songs on here would work excellently as singles, which I think Chinx realized too since almost half of the tracks on here were released as singles before the project dropped. Secrets Not Safe, Mucky, Dinga, Levels, Fish O Filet, What I Mean stand out the most for being the bangers that they are. I must give a special shoutout to One Style, which to me is the absolute highlight in the tracklist. I can’t help but compare it to one of those group projects where everyone pulled their weight, including producers JJBeatz and Ron. The crushing bass along with the haunting vocal and piano melodies make for a perfect backdrop for the quartet of rappers RO, Chinx, Fiz and R1 to deliver cold blooded bars over.
While this project has a lot of great qualities on display, most of these do not include the ability to make for a consistently enjoyable project. I’m still however very much a Chinx fan and greatly enjoyed what he did on the vast majority of these songs. I hope this won’t be his last project, especially considering how rare full length projects are in the UK Drill scene. Chinx is a rapper far above average and album-making capabilities aside, he’s certainly shown his talent on One Sided Story and it deserves the attention.
Any person who’s talked to me these past two years knows how much of an obsession UK Drill has been. To me it’s probably the most exciting subgenre of hip-hop to catch a wave in recent times. The major aspect about it that deserves acknowledgement is the fact it’s a genre that got picked up, given a different spin on and executed by kids and teenagers from the streets of London. Whereas hip-hop and its subgenres that gained popularity in the past have mostly come out of the USA, UK Drill is really something that belongs to the UK. And its influence only keeps growing.
There’s already been so much digital ink spilled to simply explain what the genre is, so I’ll keep that part short. Drill is a subgenre of hip-hop that originated in Chicago, popularized by artists like Chief Keef in the early 2010s. Hip-hop has never been a stranger to featuring violent themes in its lyrics, but these artists kicked it up another notch by rapping pretty much exclusively about gang violence. The dark and ruthless sound quickly spread all over the States and to the rest of the world. Since then, drill rappers and producers from (mainly) London have turned the sound into one of their own, both in sound and lyrical content. Drill rappers from the USA mostly rap about carrying firearms. While these are still used and all over the place in the UK, they are very much illegal, which means gang members often tend to go with the “safer” option of carrying knives instead.
In an effort to both keep the aforementioned growing influence going and to be somewhat original, this post is not going to be a list of songs or facts you *need* to know, since there’s so little room for creativity in a write-up like that. Rather, the rest of this post is going to focus on lesser-known songs from nonetheless well-established artists within the genre, with a bit of background to make sure I’m still hitting my word count (kidding).
Lil S x JMash x MJ x Earna – Normal Procedure
There are a lot of drill songs where it is quite obvious the artist(s) involved don’t really care to make a musical statement or even a quality song. This was especially common in the early days where there was not yet much of a chance to find fame or money in the genre. In those instances the “song” was purely about sending a message to rival gang members; to boast about violence, to make threats or to make fun of deceased rivals.
‘Normal Procedure’ loses none of that violent energy while perfectly channeling it into a fast-paced, aggressive and dynamic song with rude disses, catchy flows and memorable bars. Every artist was pretty much a newcomer to the drill scene when this song dropped in late 2020, which only makes this powerhouse of a posse cut all the more impressive.
Armz – Slide First
Woodgreen’s young Armz as of right now is still fairly new to the rapping thing, with this only being his third official song. You certainly wouldn’t say so; starting at his excellent beat selection, it only gets better once his fiery delivery and rapid flows are on full display. Even on the hook Armz doesn’t allow himself a break. Anytime it comes on it feels like the highly anticipated climax after all the speed he built up in the verses.
Suspect – Covid
“Sample drill” is a term that’s been floating around for a bit, referring to drill songs on which the instrumental samples an often high pitched or cartoony vocal chop from a popular song, a videogame soundtrack or another source. Its “merit” within the context of the drill genre has been highly debated, as its often goofy and playful sound takes away a lot of the brutality that drill first became known and loved for.
Suspect shows that when it’s done right, it’s done right. He delivers funny and clever bars over a high-pitched vocal sample beat while still sticking to the dark and violent style him and UK Drill as a whole became popular for.
Lil Krafty x BroadayYay – BOOM
South Side Kilburn has long been an underrated gang in the drill scene. The beat on this (crafted by Saint Cardona) alone is such an impressively multi-faceted piece of music, and the way Lil Krafty floats over it with confident boasts and detailed descriptions of violent attacks proves you don’t need an aggressive delivery to come off as convincing.
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That’s all for now, though I’m very keen on sharing more songs, information and background in the future. I tweet quite a bit about drill on my Twitter, so feel free to hit me up if your interest is at all sparked. – @CaughtInDaRain
GonzoKaraoke 