By Gary Suarez in Newsletter — Aug 2, 2024

Psychotic Break Forever: AGGRO DR1FT + AraabMUZIK

Some thoughts on the erstwhile Dipset producer's Harmony Korine collab. +reviews of AJ Suede and Yonaa.

Harmony Korine's career has had its share of twists and turns, thematically and genre-wise. His screenwriting emergence with Larry Clark's 1995 urban teen drama Kids begat a American nihilist directorial debut dubbed Gummo two years later, the tone shift about as subtle as the Midwest setting swap. Though hardly a prolific filmmaker, he deserves credit for the diversity of his next three features– the voluntarily difficult Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), the whimsically manic Mister Lonely (2007), and the mischievously chaotic Trash Humpers (2009).

Yet it was Spring Breakers that changed the proverbial game for the avant-garde enfant terrible, its pop zeitgeist referential grab bag as (unwillingly) close to the mainstream as he'd ever get. With an ensemble cast that included a former Spider-Man frenemy, multiple tween/teen TV veterans, and Gucci Mane, the 2012 film shared a linear narrative that started like Debbie Does Dallas and ended like Scarface (on repeat). Choices like a Britney Spears sing-along in pink balaclavas and James Franco's RiFF-RaFF-in-Saint-Pete cosplay made it distinctly Korine fare, the truly brazen stuff that Michael Bay himself might blush at.

A stark and often funny meta-spectacle of whiteness' proximity to Blackness, Spring Breakers went down in cinema history as arguably the seminal hip-hop movie of the 2010s. It was, on at least one level, a tongue-in-cheek commentary about the ways young Americans consumed and absorbed rap music after the primarily Black/brown art form became the prevailing expression of wider youth culture. White college kids thrive and vibe on screen to needle drops by Waka Flocka Flame and the aforementioned Guwop, their songs lumped onto a hedonistic playlist with Skrillex's appropriative trap-EDM hybrids. But whenever the white characters actually come to face-to-face on-screen with real-life trappers, be they Franco's Black friends or his drug dealer rivals, the party's over.

That's not quite how things go in AGRRO DR1FT, Korine's most recent release. For starters, the deliberately infrared splattered flick all-but blinds the viewer to the nuances of race and identity. The pseudo-Miami of this, the director's third beach noir and first self-proclaimed "post-cinema" offering, exists as a place outside of the cheap neon thrills of American reality. Instead, he plugs everything– including a world-weary Travis Scott–into a video game simulation of life, replete with essentially faceless NPCs–masked gangsters, blurry strippers, and machete-wielding little people–that surround the assassins, targets, and middlemen with the honor of line reads. It's hard to see color when everything is this distorted.

An over-the-top, ever-present narrator delivers commentary like a YouTuber attempting to add gravity to his latest Grand Theft Auto playthrough. Simultaneously a send-up of cinematic hitman tropes, a scathing critique of gamer culture, and an attempt to depart from the MarvelCinematicUniverse-addled expectations of the modern day filmgoer, it poses several logistical and existential barriers to entry that subsequently reward those willing to level-up. Or, to put it in 2024 terms, it's the ultra-masculine flipside of brat-coded brilliance.

More so than the incessant and repetitive inner monologue of its leading antihero, the most impactful audio component of AGRRO DR1FT is its score by araabMUZIK. A notable figure in the 2010s merger of electronic music and hip-hop, the MPC whiz came up with a post-Roc Cam'ron and The Diplomats while concurrently drawing from progressive house and trance to create fresh new productions. With tracks for A$AP Mob, Danny Brown, and Styles P, he made his name in rap circles that further fueled his popularity as a DJ in the EDM space. Of course, that pedigree makes him an ideal match for someone like Korine.

Following a limited run of AGRRO DR1FT live events and screenings earlier this year, as well as a paid streaming premiere, Korine's EDGLRD firm finally released the soundtrack to streaming platforms this week. Freed from the ubiquitous voice-over, araabMUZIK's work here benefits from the lack of distraction. Now optimized for those living with main character syndrome, this 34-track experience fills AirPods Max and Pro alike with exhilarating bursts of synth and bass. Many of these arrive and depart as fleeting motifs and minute-long flickers, in place of the loops and extensions otherwise demanded by screen time.

The bite sized nature of things never detract from the intent, the urgency of "Battle Ready" and "The Wild" or the suspense behind "The Awakening" and "Getting Active" no less cinematic than before. That said, it certainly doesn't hurt to remember the corresponding cut scenes while listening. Utilized to great effect in at least one of the trailers, the triumphant "Medieval" plays like a start screen beckoning one into the digital fray. Conversely, "Zone Home" connects with one of the few genuine moments of safety and intimacy in an otherwise dread-centric landscape.

In an interview with Jordan Danville at The FADER, araabMUZIK cites the legendary Giorgio Moroder as an influence along with Hans Zimmer's Gladiator and James Horner's Troy. In other words, he understood the assignment: to make Korine's hyperlocal assassin's tale into an epic hero's journey by way of choral cues and sonic surges. At the same time, he seems to have taken on a monomythical quest himself in making the AGRRO DR1FT score, working in a self-imposed "sweatshop" while resampling and recycling his own work to produce pieces new and sui generis to the project. After years of transmogrifying Kaskade cuts into his own altered beasts, araabMUZIK finally comes full circle here as the serpent nips at its own tail.

AJ Suede, Permafrost Discoveries (buy it / stream it)

Much of AJ Suede's discography boasts a certain psychotropic quality, the density of his lyricism as potent as the sonics of his chosen producers. Such is the case with Permafrost Discoveries, a salvia-short trip replete with poignant verses and hypnagogic beats. Over instrumentals by erstwhile Seattle cohort Wolftone, who worked extensively on 2017's Gotham Fortress, the G's Us rapper localizes the heady vibes by keeping everything in-person. That up-close-and-personal approach resonates strongly across these ten tracks, from the knowledge bomb of "Rent's Dew" to the purple-prose stoner sesh "Grimace." On the latter, you can all-but hear him passing the blunt to Wishbaby, one of a handful of guest appearances by the city's hip-hop underground. Among them, Perry Porter duets on the dastardly "Doctor Evol" and the frenetic "No Loss," his gossamer flow an unexpectedly satisfying contrast with Suede's measured monotone.

Yonaa, YonaaThon (buy it / stream it)

Milwaukee's contemporary sound resembles that of no other hip-hop region, almost willfully distinct from other Midwestern scenes like Chicago or Detroit, . This uniqueness bodes well for rising rapper Yonaa, who weaponizes her city's electronic, off-kilter aesthetics for the noteworthy YonaaThon mixtape. Her aggressively punched-in style resembles that of RXKNephew or her blood relation Certified Trapper, albeit less absurdist than that prolific pair on cuts like "Top Dawg" and "TNT." She spits with her whole chest on the oddly anthemic "Yo Time" and stakes her lustful claim over the synth pads and 808 loops of "Dibbs." The features stay within Wisconsin's bounds as well, with Munch Lauren making 'em sweat on "Bounce Cat" and repeat collaborator Myaap coming through with Chicken P to rep confidently on "PROJECTz."