Infinite Sounds UK: Album Review: Dead Earth 1.0 by Dangerous Creatures

Dead Earth 1.0

Dangerous Creatures

Dead Earth 1.0 is the latest release from Weaponize Records and comes from the hot new collective known as Dangerous Creatures.

The Dangerous Creatures are an “Open Universe collective of musical creatives” were founded by the legendary emcee and producer from the UK King Kashmere, and Essen (Germany) based producer Mimski. It is worth just dropping a short piece about each of them before I go on.

King Kashmere has been a huge figure on the UK scene for over twenty years, and during that time it has seen him create some of the most innovative and boundary-breaking UK Hip Hop with his distinctive wordplay and descriptive lyricism. Much of his work has been heavily influenced by his love for Sci-Fi, comic books and Off-beat Culture.

Mimski literally exploded on the scene in 2021 with her unique Lo-Fi production. This brought her an instant link with UK Hip Hop and has since seen her work with most of the Uks top emcees. She always seeks to ‘push the envelope’ of music production utilising ‘experimental techniques’ that bring a somewhat ‘bone-crunching’ production style. Dead Earth 1.0 will be her first produced work to be released on vinyl.

With Dangerous Creatures being a collective, there are some incredible features on the album in the form of Joker Star, Alecs DeLarge, Dan Peter Parker, Broomman, Ty Healy, Ramson Badbonez, Jazz T, Cappo, and Bigg Jus.

Dead Earth 1.0 has been on pre-sale but gets released digitally today, 7^th March with physical copies shipping as well. The album clocks in at around 43 mins and is comprised of 13 original tracks and 3 remixes. Aside from the remixes all production comes from Mimski, and all features aside, all lyrics come from King Kashmere. Cover art and design is by the renowned US Graffiti and Poet-Graffiti artist Dalek aka James Marshall.

Now, with all that said, there is just one thing left for me to do, and that is to take you on my take of what could well be a musical journey through and beyond what you currently understand as spacetime…

We start our journey with Existence, a sonic masterpiece that in underpinned by a solid beat. As you listen to this one it seems to mess with your mind, taking all your thoughts about what existence might mean, ripping them from the depths of your mind, shaking them up and then casting them back again like some weird multi-universal game of Yahtzee. Welcome To The Future brings us more of a head nod beat that backs a wealth of electronic vibes which merge to easily carry your awareness along to vocals. King Kashmere brings a bleak dystopian vison of a future that, once on a time, might have seemed to be taking place in a parallel universe but, now we realise that it’s not that far away and is only too real for us in the moment. Next, we find Joker Star and Alecs DeLarge featuring on ZPM. The beat and its elements hit you in a way that tweaks your nerves with a pulse, like heartbeat, which is strangely engaging but, at the same time almost has you bringing your hands to your head to keep your mind from exploding. The wordplay here causes your perception of reality to implode, sucked into a blackhole, and spit out on the other side into a reality you struggle to conceptualise. Now, if that wasn’t enough, Dan Peter Parker joins proceedings for CTHULU. Sonic and electronic elements combine with cuts and orchestral elements as Mimski takes us into a space that opens your awareness to a reality that might be inhabited by Lovecraftian entities. The vocals from Dan Peter Parker and King Kashmere take you further into this dark reality, filling your awareness with mind numbing visions of timeless entities that exist in a place you are now open to; these creatures seek not to take your body but, to invade your mind and stretch it a point that never quite breaks it, and just leaves you there…

Marduk brings a pounding beat that soon gives way to a mixture of sonic sounds that surrounds your mind creating a clean slate which is soon splashed with new visions for your mind to comprehend. Here, we are opened to Babylonian gods and their voyages among the cosmoses. Could there be possibilities of these gods being ancient astronauts who came to earth millennia ago? Who knows but, here we are once more, opened up to new ideas and visions of a past that impacts the future. Next up is the album’s title track, Dead Earth which sees Broomman and Ty Healy briefly join us on our journey. Mimski grabs our attention with another mind twisting sound scape of sonic sounds that have you closing your eyes and allowing the words to focus your mind. The wordplay drags you into another bleak view of the future; one where you can only see though closed eyes and the visions the words paint in your mind. The Dangerous Creatures Theme is brought to us in the company of Ramson Badbonez and Jazz T. The bass is heavy as are the keys, the beat is gritty and gets your head nodding and your adrenaline pumping. Here it’s all about complex wordplay with similes and metaphors that seem to be born from a time before the universe existed but, somehow encompass the present moment we inhabit. Perhaps the Dangerous Creatures exist in the now but, are born of the energy that birthed the universe in its current and other forms? Depending on how you are listening to the album, Collapse is either the ending of the first part of the journey or just a stepping stone on its continuation! This short sonic interlude is comprised of a multitude of electronic elements that merge, twist and expand, in a way that pulls you towards flipping from one side to the next or just puts you into freefall for what’s about to come next…

Our journey continues with Entity which has this electronic which seems to bring you back to earth in one moment, then in the next you’re still floating among the stars; which one it is, is down to you the listener and where you are in the moment, you are the entity. Oblivion 4000 features the legendary Cappo on a beat that has a definite boom bap feel but with elements that give this a soundtrack vibe too that brings the adrenaline to the surface once more. There seems to be two parts to this track as King Kashmere gives us a look at the world around us and how that effects and impacts our now and our future. The second part sees Cappo focus more on the individual and how focusing on the self is more important that allowing yourself to be affected by what come from the world around you. Bigg Jus joins us on Nekron; the beat here has this boom bap element but, Mimski spins these streams around it that pull and stretch your understanding of the musical element you are hearing. We see comic lore deep in this one as Nekron is a DC super villain who is the personification of death. This one is like putting a comic book into musical form but, as you listen there are so many elements to this that could so easily be reflected in situations we see unfolding in society. Pranging out is another musical interlude that has Mimski skilfully bringing a banging beat and then almost softening it into the background as the electronic elements come to the forefront and bring this sound which could find you travelling the depths of space or traversing the depths of your dreamscapes…

Dead Earth (O.R.K.O Click Remix) is the first of three remixes on the album. This remix is a heavy bass vibe that is tinged with tubular bells, this creates a more oppressive air to the sound. This makes the whole idea of a dead earth, that you can only get a vision of though the words you hear, take on a far more desolate feel. The next remix is the Oblivion 4000 (Kashmere Remix ft Jazz T & Cappo) taking nothing away from the message within the original, the beat here is fused with organ notes and keys that give it a slightly darker edge; this gives more weight to the impact of energy from the world around us and cements the idea that looking within is critical for each of us. The final remix is the Welcome To The Future (Alecs DeLarge Remix). This brings another edge to the vibe of the track; where has a more chilled edge to things but, the use of the high paced cymbals and explosion sounds, gives the whole thing a darker edge with something of Lo-Fi Grime sound too. The album ends with Dead End, this is less of an outro and more of a sonic / electronic vibe that seems to echo the very title of the track. It feels very much like you find yourself at an impasse, wondering if there is any way forward or if you should, in fact, go back the way you came…

Making your way through this album gives you a very real sense of traversing different versions of reality that not only make you question the notion of spacetime but, also give you a glimpse at the real possibility of how music, words and frequencies could have an effect on your perception of reality.

Dead Earth 1.0 is, without a doubt, a genre bending album that takes the notion of Hip Hop to a very different level. Some might even say it is not Hip Hop at all. However, the influence of Hip Hop is only too clear to see here. Yes, it is true that Mimski brings a whole new depth of production value to project, one that merges and fuses many different sounds in that Lo-Fi way, creating an overall sound that has a dark, heavy edge to it. Creating a sound like this works so well when it is the backdrop to what King Kashmere brings in the way of vocals. What King Kashmere does here is to merge all those eclectic influences and deliver something that seems to be as far away from reality as it is close to reality by the use of extremely clever wordplay and the use of similes and metaphors rooted in ancient mysticism, comic book lore and stories from minds of classic authors. He then merges all that with a deep knowledge of what is going on in the world around us, twisting the narratives to take us beyond the now and throughout time.

This is definitely going to be one of the standout albums of the year, not just because it has that genre bending sound but, also because it has an experimental vibe that keeps you root in the now while allowing you to drift off into other versions of reality. This is a very cleaver album that will undoubtedly stand the test of time.

My advice here is to grab a copy now while you can, and get a handle on where it might take you. The release comes in classic Black vinyl as well as Yellow vinyl and Ltd Cassette too. So, don't sleep as they won't be around forever.

I give my humble thanks to Guy at Weaponize Records for bringing this one to my attention.

Now it’s back to reality and I’ll see you next time,

Peace out.

Steve

LINKS

Grab you copy, while you can, on Bandcamp:

https://weaponizerecords.bandcamp.com/album/dead-earth-10

Social Links

https://www.instagram.com/kingkashmere_official/

https://www.instagram.com/mimski_beatz/

https://www.instagram.com/weaponize_records/

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