The Fat Angel Sings

http://

Today, Los Angeles’s unruly rap-punk twosome Ho99o9 unleash their sophomore EP Horrors of 1999 into the world (via Family). Ho99o9 are hip-hop for people who don’t normally listen to much hip-hop – Gucci Mane fans should probably keep on driving. No, they’re designed more for a rock crowd, not least because their hip-hop rocks. If you’re into hardcore, thrash, speed metal or any kind of coagulation of noise and vocal venom/expectorations of directionless loathing fuelled by guitars and machines, then you shouldn’t be too alienated by Ho99o9’s aggro punk rap. If you’re old and remember any of the “B” boys from the 80s – Black Flag, Big Black, Bad Brains – then you’ll probably feel quite at home in the crowd at a Ho99o9 (pronounced “horror”) gig, even if a Ho99o9 gig does look pretty intimidating and involves flailing limbs and colliding bodies. They have tracks with titles such as Da Blue Nigga from Hellboy, all grumbling electronics and asphyxiated growls.  Their music doesn’t have the hammer-blow effect of DG or the creepy menace of OF, notwithstanding the video accompanying Da Blue Nigga … featuring eyes being gouged out and priests copulating with skeletons. It isn’t quite the crushed collision of beats and electronics offered by Clipping. These self-styled “mutant freax” are a bit more hammy, more Grand Guignol garish and ghastly, more camply “obvious” in their morbid theatricality, with lyrics that rhyme “fuck your politics!” with “apocalypse”.A 6-track run of static riffs, electronic screech, and throaty raps, the raucous project comes with a set of directions. “Play loud and kill yourself thanks to no-fuckin’-body but us,” Turn up the volume and listen and then watch the video for Track 2—”Day Of Vengeance”—if you dare.