Stateless - Matilda

By: Joel Frieders

The first few times I listened to Stateless I was speechless. In fact the first time I heard this dude sing was on the video for Ariel I wasn't sure if it was some sort of Nelly remix that made Nelly sound nothing like Nelly, with the exception of the addicting fucking hook. It's like RnB woke up and realized it was fucking dumb and made the appropriate changes to fit in with 2011.

I did some digging, and with the help of Roy Boy, I found their entire catalog within minutes.

Stateless are, in my opinion, what Mute Math would sound like if the drummer wasn't so keen on punishing his hi-hat, or rather was replaced by a producer that if I wasn't married or heterosexual would completely blow in thanks. The production is fucking smooth. The beats are original, yet oftentimes traditional in the sense of having a steady bass drum and trebley snare/snap/rim shot, but holy balls I want to listen to this all the fucking time. I know I've name dropped them before, but this is Slow Car Crash done the way Slow Car Crash would do Slow Car Crash. It's just done by a bunch of Brit bastards with really shitty management and PR people who won't answer emails.

Matilda is fucking delicious. "Ariel", "Miles To Go", "Assassinations", "Ballad of NGB", Fuck man, essentially every other track is exactly what I would expect from Stateless having been aware of them and a huge fan of them for almost a full week. It's electronic, it's RnB, it's alternative, it's a white guy with a smooth voice singing like he doesn't give a Fuck what genre's pot he's pissing in.

While I am completely hooked on their self-titled album from 2007 in a way that I haven't felt since discovering Prince's guitar solo on a live performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, I do feel Matilda is a step forward and away from conventional production that seems to litter the 2007 offering.

The self-titled album from 2007 starts off a shitton better than Matilda and it's immediately apparent what type of album you're getting in to, but Matilda takes more chances and I'm perfectly happy with erasing all album titles and just putting them into a playlist titled "fucking perfect".

Hi Stateless! I love your music! Every email address I've emailed emails to has ignored our attempts at an interview! 2011 is all about accessibility, at least tell those jagbags representing you to respectfully decline like humans.

Love,
Dad