Deerhoof ‘Your Dystopic Creation Doesn’t Fear You f.t Awkwafina’

Last night I went to see experimental jazz trio, the Vijay Iyer Trio play at Wigmore Hall in Marylebone with a friend. I don’t usually go to gigs outside of the indie remit (at least I haven’t since I left college), and any jazz concerts I have been to have usually consisted of big bands and jazz standards, so I was a little apprehensive. We walked from Goodge Street towards Marylebone amongst tall glass fronted buildings and imposing stone monoliths until we arrived at the hall and took our seats in a room that can only be described as bougee (if ya don’t know what that means bloody look it up you plebs). We took our seats next to an elderly couple who held hands throughout the entire performance and watched as the trio took their places onstage. For a jazz novice, 75 minutes of nearly uninterrupted improvisational jazz would normally be a ‘bit much’ but the sheer virtuosity of the players meant that everyone in the room was completely transfixed from start to end. Melding traditional jazz styles with exploratory ad-libbing and insanely complex polyrhythms, the trio took us on a journey with them as they traversed rhythm and harmony, leaving the audience feeling spent at its conclusion – God knows how they felt after that. Anyway, today’s Track Of The Day is Deerhoof’s latest offering ‘Your Dystopic Creation Doesn’t Fear You‘, feat Queens rapper Awkwafina couldn’t be more far removed from experimental jazz – that is until you listen a little harder. The syncopated rhythms are there, so are the groove laden bass lines and the exploratory format – throw in Awkwafina’s acerbic rap and there is absolutely a link between this track and its jazz predecessors. Of the track Deerhoof said: ‘In the span of 10 short days last April, Prince passed away, and Bill Clinton shouted down a small group of black women who dared question the morality of 90s legislation with which he ushered in the era of unprecedented mass incarceration that continues to this day. Something about the random concurrence of Prince’s glowing obituaries and Clinton’s elitist intimidation tactics seemed to point at an absurd contradiction at the heart of America’s treatment of its citizens of color”. Listen here: