Steve 'Flash' Juon“Concise” describes something that’s brief and thorough at the same time. It doesn’t suffer from extra words. The same can be said for Concise Kilgore on his new album “KiL Joy Division” — it’s only 9 songs and 30 minutes long. Whatever else you can say about him you can say this much: the man lives his gimmick.
What else can you say though? He hails from Salt Lake City – check. This is his first album since “Kobain” in 2012 – check. The new album’s first single “GB1B” was produced by Statik Selektah and features a cameo from Rasco – check. It’s a weirdly upbeat track for a rapper who tends to sound like a prophet from hip-hop’s dystopian future. To be fair though Deltron 3030 WAS from that future and had some pretty snappy head-nodding tunes, so it may be that Statik, Rasco and Kilgore tapped the main vein on this one.
Kilgore is best exemplified by songs like the title track though, which features a weird androgynous robotic voice repeating the name over and over again for the chorus, and someone who appears to be having a psychotic break during the outro. She keeps chanting “It’s the middle of the night in my house” and “I’M GONNA KILL EVERYONE” in a sing-song voice. Even though he hails from the land of Mormons, you’d think he hailed from Austin instead – Kilgore likes to keep s–t weird. He describes his style as “corruption over percussion” and I think it fits.
What’s even weirder to me is that I’d swear the second half of “Chichen Itza” is looping the same record as The Artifacts “Cummin’ Thru Ya F—in’ Block.” How did my mental synapses make the bridge from one slightly obscure track to one that almost nobody has heard before this write-up? You tell me. I’m digging it though. And to be “concise” myself, I’m digging what Kilgore is doing. The DJ Babu produced “Z-28” is a high speed toe tapper featuring Cig Burna. “Young Thug or Draw” could be mistaken for a Run the Jewels track for all the right reasons. The intro and outro sandwich this album’s trippy hip-hop style perfectly, leaving you believing Kilgore really might be a “Black Mamba On Klonopins.” If he is keep taking them – they’re obviously working.