B earbashes the Fash, with her gently-stated feminist rage twisted here into a broader anger at the backlash to progress.
B’s commitment to social justice runs as a thread through her work, and here it’s oriented towards anti-fascism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism… and how we can have hope for justice and accountability. She says “This is without a doubt an angry record – but I think it also really gets to the fundamental hopefulness of anti-fascism.”
B says: “This album is me saying we need to carve our faces onto the mountain of ‘we give a shit’ – our future depends on it.”
The bass is turned up here, synths and 808s blended with pianos and cellos and harmonicas, B’s sound is always unique – alt hip hop with strong trip hop and trap vibes, a classical edge, unusual instrumentation and arrangements underpins sharp and soft, unflinching lyricism.
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B of Briz’ ‘A Lyrical Fash Bash’ is exactly what it says on the tin but musically it’s a mixed bag… in a good way! Can you even use that saying in a complimentary way? Well tough luck cause I’m doing it right now! And what I mean by that is that this album offers such a grabbag of influences and moods from quirky electronics which at times are reminiscent of chiptune music while also employing more classical instrumentation such as piano, strings or harmonica even. It makes for a rather playful sound but one that also contains a sense of melancholy. It’s experimental almost in the way it blends these elements together with playful abandon to the point of being avant-garde at times almost. Is Avant Garde Hiphop a thing even? Cause I think it might be now? But despite feeling so experimental in nature overall it still feels infectiously catchy which in turn really helps B’s message to really stick.
Which brings me to said message and especially its delivery because despite the music’s whimsical nature it does not betray the underlying lyrical content which while straightforward in nature possesses no lack of wonderful poetry. It flows wonderfully in an almost polite soft-spoken delivery. But despite said delivery, worry not as there is no lack of bite here. I mean do you need reminding of the album’s title?
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The overall vibration I get from, A Lyrical Fash Bash, is a journey through empathy and compassion willfully ignored by people too cruel to care. It explores motivations and offers opinions that ring so true they cut deep. It’s deconstruction of the way society conducts itself, how governments use this negative energy to keep billionaires on their thrones of flies and shit. All laid out over really nicely arranged beats. The cadence and the rhyming schemes feel very British but the content is universal. Even so, even with the darkness of the material it’s a real treat to listen to. It washes over you with a mellowness and coolness that allows the message get across without feeling brow bitten. It’s like hypnosis. The tonal qualities of B, her thymic patterns gently spoken, not barked work their way into you brainbox and just lilt away. Spoken word, beat poetry rap with a broken heart for the world.
Very much recommend this one.
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Just to get this out of the way: I have no real knowledge about Rap/Hip-Hop. I have heard a fair share of it, of course, and I enjoy a good deal of it, but it I could not adequately talk about technique or the culture behind it. So I won’t. What I will talk about though, is the
B of Briz’s vocal style is very matter-of-fact; a subdued way of rhythmic speaking that reminds me of beat poetry in more than one way. In her verses, she clearly lays out the failures of society to deal with the current resurgence of fascism in the world. The wider communities, the rich, the media, everyone that aids in this gets rightfully put on notice. And while I don’t think that a lot of these demographics, who see themselves as “the good guys”, will be happy to hear what B has to say, she is not simply blaming people outside of her own group. Instead she points out clear paths out of this mess: community, mutual aid, respect, compassion, and understanding chief among them.The arrangement behind the vocals is quite minimal, but still has variation and drives the tracks forward at a brisk pace. It leaves plenty of space for the vocal delivery and never becomes overbearing, but still stays perfectly pleasant and memorable. Something that jumped out at me when I heard this album for the first time, is the interplay between vocal rhythm and the instrumentation. At times, both are perfectly in sync, with the lyrics hitting at the same point as the beat. At others, the vocals feel slightly syncopated, as if the words come too quickly. This leads to some lyrics underscoring the uneasiness of their meaning, while they give the songs a little extra push at others.
Overall, this is an album I enjoyed a lot. Truth needs to be spoken to power, and sometimes folks have more power to help and make the world a little better than they realize. And I very much believe that it is these people that should pay attention.![]()
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