Out of hibernation feeling bold and prepared, intuitively setting scenes to inspire your dreams and haunt your nightmares, Jody Bigfoot has a new LP. Twelve tracks seeded from the jagged and colossal beats by Konchis (AKA WAV Machine) reminiscent of the powerful Scottish coast and highlands he hails from. Bigfoot is back again, weaving revolutionary vines to root and crack through the distorted lenses we’ve been reared behind.
Named after a book of the same name you should definitely check out, Report From Iron Mountain is here, and it’s a game changer. This incredibly lucid hip hop album is an unexpected, uncanny masterpiece - twelve tracks of intellectual vigour, wordplay and obscure rhyme schemes shuffling over UK dubstep, industrial grime and hip hop. The beats are visceral and hypnotic, featuring chilling percussive reverbs and deep resounding kicks, leaving a disconcerting space for Bigfoot to speak his unwavering vocals with conviction. Join him on a transformative journey and shed some light on the dark side that the faint hearted have ignored.
The album opens aggressively with "Barred From The Booth," a song about censorship and homogenised music markets reminding us to think for ourselves before transitioning to the next eerie beat. "Wizard of Oz" opens with lifelong friend MC DropDeadFred, who brings a fresh scheme of syllables that ricochets around the dark space built up by Konchis. As the hook says we are made in the image of God, but the mirror breaks and the spirit is lost, the verses tell stories of the Wizard who pulls strings from behind a curtain much like the international bankers in this world. We are encouraged to pull back the curtain and look beyond the veil before we launch forward.
Next up, "Cobra Strike," which features Nobull, another lifelong friend and member of the first rap group Jody was a part of (as a DJ) - Verbal Terrorists. Jody and Nobull display the synergy they acquired through crafting their previous LP with Konchis as Lucid Giants - Artificial Ignorance. This time they are here to decapitate the snakes that run the companies we call countries with razor-sharp verses. "See The Roaches’" bass line squelches into your eardrums as the drums slap you in the face with the same stunning force the Black Mirror episode that inspired it wields.
"Blue Beams" plays with the conspiracy of the same name, the idea that a fake alien invasion will be used to unite the planet against an external threat, and a global government with its own digital currency. The chorus sounds like it’s being beamed straight from Mars whilst the verses are like grime and sci-fi had got into Andre Delambre’s teleporter together. On a slightly lighter note and softer instrumental, Jody welcomes his cousin Concreature, who has recently been collaborating with Congo Natty and his daughter Kaya Fyah, onto the song for an adventure through artistic discovery and self-expression.
Next up, "Bonez" confronts the limits of life with a fervent resolve to leave a trail of words and songs behind, an endeavor Bigfoot proliferates in, sitting on a catalog of 150 songs and 50 music videos. "Wasted Bars" is two solid verses over a bittersweet and blissful instrumental, but no bars are wasted as Bigfoot intricately lays a path out for Nobull who obliterates the paving slabs as he lands like a comet with the finest crafted and most densely packed verse of his enigmatic discography.
"Futures For Sale" is based on the only book Jody ever had to put down due to fatigue and fear, The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, which details the lengths that companies go to extract and sell the new gold - our data. This tributary song by Jody Bigfoot might be exhausting yet reflects the source material and the weight of the unconfronted shadow that is surveillance capitalism. Church bells and galactic synths carry the dystopian poetry between the quotes from Shoshana Zuboff herself that detail how data was dragged into the marketplace like every other human activity and indigenous person.
"Report From Iron Mountain" opens with a quote from the source material and goes on to ask who wants to be ruled? Who wants to be schooled? Who wants to be trapped? With the obvious answer being no one, it is imperative to escape the war economy and the storytelling that enables it. With synths that sound like angels playing strings in reverse and forest spirits ringing glass bells, the sonic plot thickens. “[sluurrrp] Let me take a sip of my green tea and tell you a story” Bigfoot says as the next track "Silly Boaster" demands our attention. Seven stanzas craft a plot reminiscent of Gulliver’s Travels, yet it feels disconcerting and we are dragged into an Orwellian K-hole, emerging refreshed and tearing up the rule book as we complete the hero's journey and confront the shadow.
Finally, in "Meeting The Shadow," the chorus is as discordant as a confrontation with the realm should be. The rhyme schemes in the verses zigzag and stretch like the back-and-forth recurring themes found when one wrestles with the shadow and with this final piece of what is sure to be a polarising puzzle, Report From Iron Mountain comes to a stunning close.
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