Crushed and Murdered

"Gangsta of War" is the perfect intro to a tape that essentially sounds like a secret early recording made by a now-well-known Warp Records project. Or it could be Art of Noise doing its best imitation of gangsta rap. The hypnotic yet syncopated drum-machine-generated beats, punctuated by bass and urgent...

By Tom Murphy

June 6, 2013

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"Gangsta of War" is the perfect intro to a tape that essentially sounds like a secret early recording made by a now-well-known Warp Records project. Or it could be Art of Noise doing its best imitation of gangsta rap. The hypnotic yet syncopated drum-machine-generated beats, punctuated by bass and urgent synth tones, especially on "Under Slide," give off a sense of being inside Grand Theft Auto, where you reach a secret area haunted by a sense of lurking menace. If you didn't know better, you'd think Aphex Twin was behind this recording — that is, if it didn't have that unmistakable veneer of lo-fi fuzzying the music's edges. Crushed and Murdered has created a sound that would complement Larry Clark imagery or John Moritsugu end credits gone dark.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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Twitter: @simianthinker