Terribly Terrific.
There's a ton of 'Bad Boy' type media flooding the forum, as has been the trend for the past few years, but we rarely get a mention of the more mainstream consequences and circumstances of actually being a bad boy, and not only do we get that comment, it's delivered with a two-fold double-meaning: not only are the boys of Bastarz getting a Zero for Conduct in terms of a typical school or work setting, they're declaring that they're so expert at being bad that THEY have become the ones giving out marks for conduct. Additionally, the comment of Zero for Conduct takes the idea of being bad and spins it to being the colloquial bad, as in awesome on stage, a thing which is easy for observers to admit is something that this trio is particularly awesome at. So you've got being Bad as 3 separate ideas in this: there's the general bad an aesthetic in the real world, being bad as a colloquial slang term for bad-ass and awesome as referenced in the Lyrics, and being bad as in a literal criminal as depicted by the visuals in the MV. And even the unit's name, Bastarz, portmanteau blend of 'bastards' and 'stars'... absolutely perfect.
The three chosen for the group are perfect, B-Bombs smooth vocals sit beautifully in a rough and rowdy instrumental backdrop particularly when paired up with PO's gravelly raps. U-Kwon's voices sits perfectly in between the two and the uniquely bright and slim quality makes it perfect for the vamps. I was surprised / briefly confused / delighted to hear Zico's voice, but with his role taking point on production, and the energetic warmth curled up under his voice blends so well with the official trio's vocals that I can't say I'm really surprised after thinking about it. Hearing him was starling at first, but it does make a lot of sense for his vocals to be there. The stage version sounds awesome without him, but on the recording, having Zico's rougher high-line sit in the recording's sweet spot where they blend into the instrumental is too good to pass up for how it throws PO's vocals into sharp relief. Zico's production job is spot on, fully displaying the epic talents he has to call on (which is why I was so disappointed in most of the solo-work he's released this year, it just was NOT up to par). The track is fantastically well spatialized, leading to an energetic bounce of elements rather more like the crowd in a club than the over-crowding of a busy subway station; each element has it's own space to breath, both in terms of the frequency isolation in the mix and in terms of where the elements sit in the 3-dimensional space of the headphones. All the transitions are smooth and slick which gives the rough overtones that much more drama.
Visually, the MV is a treat. The styling is gorgeous and the set aesthetics are fantastic, blending a dark, dank underworld with the neon bright intrigue of the club scene. Each member is given a unique character to play in a beautifully stylized depiction of a drug running ring, with lots of visual throws to the Chinese Triads / Yakuza (or at least the iconic tropes of their pop cultural portrayals). B-Bomb is the Client, the bad-boy rockstar that puts the sexy and druggy bits into the classic trope of sex, drugs, rock & roll. PO is the Distributor, the one of the gang's throne calling all the shots with a hand in both the marketplace and the manufacturing process, while staying distanced from and neatly between both parties. He has the most variety in costume because as the ganglord, he has a lot of hats to wear, being able to blend in with normal society, the druggies, and the drug-makers, and such. And then U-Kwon is the Manufacturer. Overtly, he runs an industrial meat-packing plant, the kind with massive freezers that lead to an abundance of antifreeze and the sort of chemical-waste oversight that excuses massive amounts of toxic waste that no one looks too carefully at... both things necessary for the production of crystal meth. The girls in his employ work the meat-packing factory as a front, keeping things above board in one business while they systematically produce drugs and launder drug-money under the ruse of pricey, artisanal-butcher-cut, slabs of meat. The 'snow' scenes could be depictions of cocaine (and the attire of the employees suits the stylized pop-cultural depiction of a meth-lab fairly well), but the main reason to base a drug lab in a freezer-heavy industry is access to anti-freeze, which is not necessary to cocaine production so my money's on meth (the shot of burning crystalline bits around :53, could be crack cocaine, but it still seems more like meth to me). Over all the MV provides as beautifully stylized and sterilized depiction of the drug-world, glamorized just enough to make it alluring without making the illegality of it too obvious or too easy/appealing-to-imitate. It strikes just the right balance, with a flair of obvious fictionalization, to be awesome.
The three chosen for the group are perfect, B-Bombs smooth vocals sit beautifully in a rough and rowdy instrumental backdrop particularly when paired up with PO's gravelly raps. U-Kwon's voices sits perfectly in between the two and the uniquely bright and slim quality makes it perfect for the vamps. I was surprised / briefly confused / delighted to hear Zico's voice, but with his role taking point on production, and the energetic warmth curled up under his voice blends so well with the official trio's vocals that I can't say I'm really surprised after thinking about it. Hearing him was starling at first, but it does make a lot of sense for his vocals to be there. The stage version sounds awesome without him, but on the recording, having Zico's rougher high-line sit in the recording's sweet spot where they blend into the instrumental is too good to pass up for how it throws PO's vocals into sharp relief. Zico's production job is spot on, fully displaying the epic talents he has to call on (which is why I was so disappointed in most of the solo-work he's released this year, it just was NOT up to par). The track is fantastically well spatialized, leading to an energetic bounce of elements rather more like the crowd in a club than the over-crowding of a busy subway station; each element has it's own space to breath, both in terms of the frequency isolation in the mix and in terms of where the elements sit in the 3-dimensional space of the headphones. All the transitions are smooth and slick which gives the rough overtones that much more drama.
Visually, the MV is a treat. The styling is gorgeous and the set aesthetics are fantastic, blending a dark, dank underworld with the neon bright intrigue of the club scene. Each member is given a unique character to play in a beautifully stylized depiction of a drug running ring, with lots of visual throws to the Chinese Triads / Yakuza (or at least the iconic tropes of their pop cultural portrayals). B-Bomb is the Client, the bad-boy rockstar that puts the sexy and druggy bits into the classic trope of sex, drugs, rock & roll. PO is the Distributor, the one of the gang's throne calling all the shots with a hand in both the marketplace and the manufacturing process, while staying distanced from and neatly between both parties. He has the most variety in costume because as the ganglord, he has a lot of hats to wear, being able to blend in with normal society, the druggies, and the drug-makers, and such. And then U-Kwon is the Manufacturer. Overtly, he runs an industrial meat-packing plant, the kind with massive freezers that lead to an abundance of antifreeze and the sort of chemical-waste oversight that excuses massive amounts of toxic waste that no one looks too carefully at... both things necessary for the production of crystal meth. The girls in his employ work the meat-packing factory as a front, keeping things above board in one business while they systematically produce drugs and launder drug-money under the ruse of pricey, artisanal-butcher-cut, slabs of meat. The 'snow' scenes could be depictions of cocaine (and the attire of the employees suits the stylized pop-cultural depiction of a meth-lab fairly well), but the main reason to base a drug lab in a freezer-heavy industry is access to anti-freeze, which is not necessary to cocaine production so my money's on meth (the shot of burning crystalline bits around :53, could be crack cocaine, but it still seems more like meth to me). Over all the MV provides as beautifully stylized and sterilized depiction of the drug-world, glamorized just enough to make it alluring without making the illegality of it too obvious or too easy/appealing-to-imitate. It strikes just the right balance, with a flair of obvious fictionalization, to be awesome.
I Give it a 9.5/10: Divine!! |  |
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