On the first listen through to Lilblackkids’ debut EP Planet Of The Blues: Part One, the release gathers countless threads of disparate genres, eras and styles, stitches them together and adds its own lining notes with a knowing nod to the future. On the second listen through, the messages and themes make their way to the forefront. On both counts, it’s a demolition job and the insurance won’t cover it. Lilblackkids is a new group consisting of long-time Stones Throw affiliate Georgia Anne Muldrow and rapper Keith Rice, and in the name of equality they distribute all singing, rapping, production and instrumental tasks evenly amongst themselves, thus maintaining full control over the quality of the product, a scheme that pays off without the use of a pyramid, unless it furthers the narrative.
Planet Of The Blues: Part One takes the finest shavings of neo-soul, retro R&B and fresh-faced nineties hip-hop and creates a spiritual circuit board before being connected to a battered amp using a dodgy lead and given a fuzz-cut by the swampy blues guitar alluded to in the title. Blues and hip-hop have not had the fruitful kind of relationship one might imagine as rap has always favoured sampling funk over getting stuck in one. This leaves the market for a synthesis of the two genres, which share many thematic similarities, surprisingly untapped, to use a crude, distasteful analogy. At the very least, this 4-track EP glosses over the digital for something more analogue-y.
The EP’s first single, “Oct. 31st,” is a scuzzy ode to Hallow’s Eve, contrasting the cartoon horror of the holiday with the real-life pedestrian horrors of the everyday. The guitar hopped a train from Memphis to be here and it wants to regale us with tales of its perilous journey. Both vocalists trade bars and melodies over the different sections and segues of the track, which melt together joyfully. Georgia Ann Muldrow serenades our morbid curiosity with a chilling refrain. “Cause I can't think /Certain death got a ring to it/I can't dream and wake up in Halloween.”
The pace is slowed right down for “Planet Of The Blues,” in which the guitar gently weeps in the background while Muldrow’s voice sweeps the listener up in the sheer gravity of it all, presuming a blues planet has a gravitational pull. Keith Rice uses the space of the track to flex his vocal prowess, which is criminally underrated. “I swear I ain’t been here before but still this ain’t nothing new/ Never seen it all from this far or ever this kinda blue /I’m tuned into big shot, looking for the biggest bounty /Gotta thank every planet and all of this space around me /Moving at 12 parsecs every 2 damn seconds /Tell the Sith I’ll show his life a darker side in a second.”
“Friday” adds some smooth electro-funk to the stew, which levels out the entire experience and gets the shoulders involved. The guitar simmers on the off-beat, old-school synth effects drop at will and the vocoder vocals allow the eighties to crash the party. Though the whole EP has an Afrofuturist focus, every past era is meticulously written into the script and beautifully realised, each decade interacting with the others in a jam session facilitated by a sci-fi timelord. The sheer scope of Planet Of The Blues: Part One gives the listener the knowledge to appreciate the evolution of music, which runs concurrently with the devolution of humanity, although that isn’t the intended message at all and any jaded disillusionment was added at the writer’s discretion.
The EP is closed out by “Church," which introduces the gothic gospel feel the title implies. Muldrow’s voice mourns and soars as she recounts tales of a troubled life only given respite through music. It’s the perfect message to conclude with, as Planet Of The Blues: Part One is primarily a pure celebration of music throughout the ages, both those passed and those to come. Judging solely by this EP, it is hard to foresee the Planet Of The Blues bothering with many of the petty stresses of the Earth folk, opting instead for bio-domes and gut-wrenchingly confessional songs. It’s hard not to imagine a world in which everyone had such a healthy outlet for their issues. Maybe then we wouldn’t need to invent utopian planets to stay positive.
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