"Clusterbombs are like rappers..." all they need is enough spins... Nowadays we drop CDs like munitions. Some explode on contact. Others fall and lay in wait, ready to be picked up by unsuspecting hands and ears...
Clusterbombs is the debut solo LP from Gravel Records recording artistand Giraffe Nuts member Alltruisms. The album distills 16fully-realized tracks into a 45-minute journey, guided by a man of ourtimes, who is most of all a traveler. He is like the rest of us.Politically aware, but faced with more immediate job problems, carproblems and girl problems, getting by with black humor. He is a bitdifferent from the rest of us. Writing songs in a Laotian bomb crater,building houses after the tsunami in Thailand, four-day hikes in NewZealand, staying with a Fijian village minister´s family. Prone totravel solo for months at a time, return and leave again, he bringsthis dichotomy and unsettled motion to his songs.
Alltruisms rap history began long before his first appearance, on ahidden track, uncredited. His passion and skills match his backstory.As he says on the album´s incendiary lead track, he´s "giving it mymillion ten percent right here today / same criteria / a lightyearaway." This statement of purpose continues on "Deposit." That off hischest, Alltru brings in GN teammate Verbal Kent to tag-team an instantJ-Zone classic on "Blindfolded."
Kaz 1´s "Nine-digit Number" and Maker´s "Rockets Red Glare" are theanthems, calls for change in a time when we convince ourselves that,"Rome´s burning but don´t worry, forget it / Nero´s fiddle solos is the number 1 record." But first the change must be internalized, and RustyChains helps Alltru explain "The Birds and the Bees." Trainingcomplete, Alltru´s ready to ride in like a knight in shining armor,armed with jaw-dropping poetics like "they say Jesus saves and G´s saveus, I don´t believe it / heaven and hell have a free-trade agreementbetween ´em."
The title track "Clusterbombs," and the story of a girl named "Oh,"transport narrator and listener to Southeast Asia, and two verydifferent travel adventures. To paraphrase the ad, "what goes on inThailand stays in Thailand," but the narrator doesn´t, and it´s backhome to concerns more banal but no less interesting. On "Dry-spell,"Alltruisms is looking for love in his own, brutally honest way. On"Nutcamp," he and Giraffe Nuts declare war on anyone who didn´t buy"Eat Them." "Jalopy" and "Hire Me" satirize two cornerstones of ourculture, cars and jobs. And on "Dear Hip Hop," he and Verbal Kentexamine their histories and experiences with their art.
And there it might have ended, but Alltruisms thought his title trackmetaphor was important enough to warrant a remix. The story of adeserted dusty field becomes a meditation on pop culture as thedefining weapon of our age, in the hands of a "freedom fighter for anew recorded world order / four corners of the globe spread the messageto your borders." The production, by J-Zone, DJ PRZM, Maker, Kaz1,Earmint, Overflo and 5th Element, provides ample aviation fuel to guidethe bomber to his targets throughout.
Upon completing the album, Alltruisms took off to travel in Ecuador andColombia, where he volunteered in the jungle, learned Spanish, andfound some new interesting things to write songs about. He can also beheard on Verbal Kent´s new album "Fist Shaking" (Molemen Records), andon past Gravel Records releases including Giraffe Nuts "Eat Them,"Verbal Kent "What Box," and Rusty Chains "Battle Scars To Prove It."
Clusterbombs heralds the discovery of a shiny object in a quiet,deserted field we call hip hop, ready to get picked up and heard...
(Official biography - 2008)
Website: http://www.myspace.com/alltrubombs
