Spectreview: Slauson Malone – Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Crater Speak) [EP]

Released: September 16, 2020

Avant-Gardé
Experimental
Art Hip-Hop

-LIGHT SLATE BLUE-

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“No matter how hard you try, you can’t stop me now”

Sometimes I think I use the word “artist” too frequently for it to bear any meaning. Jasper Marsalis, however, is a capital-A Artist: in this case, someone to seeks to raise questions over providing answers. As a visual artist, they tackle the warped dynamics of Black spectacle and the consumption of Black art in Western culture. Naturally, as Slauson Malone, the lines blur even further.

Vergangenheitsbewältigung (a German word encapsulating the struggle to comprehend the atrocities of your homeland) feels like an appendix of their visionary debut LP A Quiet Farewell, released last year. The sentiment, apparently, persists: Vergangenheitsbewältigung continues where A Quiet Farewell left off, crushing screwed soul samples and mournful features into a harrowing, dirge-like musique concrete. Though the shock factor may not be present here – many tracks here are direct continuations of those on its older sibling, and some even use them as reference – it’s an argument that’s worth revisiting in a year that feels vastly more apocalyptic than the last.

Central to Margalis’ art is the vector of performance: the dynamic between audience and artist, and how that dynamic is weighted in America based on race. Likewise, Slauson Malone works are challenging endeavors in that they’re almost overwhelmingly obtuse, requiring an accompanying text (a self-described “unreliable guide of materials”) for maximum context. It’s an act of defiance. All artists in this country are exploited to some degree, but nowhere near more so than the Black artist. Here, as on A Quiet Farewell, Malone refuses to be easily branded or pigeonholed, and their holistic approach to construction via sampling knowingly taunts the appropriation of Black culture committed by decades worth of artists.

It’s hard to pinpoint, but Vergangenheitsbewältigung bears some spirit that feels a little more quotidian than its predecessor. It’s as influenced by the wilds of jazz as ever, but there’s also a refocus on less esoteric, more popular music. “Simile #7” opens the EP plaintively with Jai’s young, weary pleas. “My feet’s tired” feels like King Krule singing over Alfa Mist solo piano: Archy Marshall’s deflated huskiness seems to bear an influence over Malone’s cadence. Live instrumentation prevails, often interrupted: the one-two punch of “THE MESSAGE 3: Blood” and “The Wake Pt. 3 & 2” bring Malone’s art pieces to near-orchestral levels. Yet the tone remains insular and weighty, in “Smile #6’s” trap breakdown and “I’m tired’s” listless organ and in nearly every moment that synthetic scream resurfaces.

As an EP out of context, Vergangenheitsbewältigung benefits mostly from its runtime length, allowing such a glacially-paced listen to pass by like a breeze. But the act of listening, and of comprehending its message, is an entirely different matter. It’s would be a powerful listen even outside of the direness of the moment; inside of it, it’s a haunting work that transcends its cerebral coldness and hits somewhere closer to vitalness.

Highly recommended for fighting obfuscation.