Sludge Factorie

Blood Moses

Ralph Perez | December 14, 2014

Guys, I like weird ass hip hop sometimes. And I like to eat sugar sandwiches while cutting out death threats to Bokeem Woodbine while listening to said weird ass hip hop. While curating my most recent opus to said Dead Presidents actor, I ran through the impressive collection of releases from Chicago group SLUDGE FACTORIE. Hit play below while crafting you're own letter to Mr. Woodbine.

Talk about weird ass hip hop guys! No, seriously, talk about it! Now, you ass hats!

Okay, are you taking about it? Good.

So v8 TFD, the MC of the group (all production is handled by SYFFAL snuggle bunny Morbidly-O-Beats) is beyond crazy with his tangential word play, and stream of subconscious rhymes. Picture Dose One on LSD, during a schizophrenic break, but purposefully, and perfectly bizarre.

Morbidly-O-Beats knows how to feed the madman that is v8 the perfect palette for his Basquiat-like word pictures. If it's not heavy, muddy synths and drums, it's a tinkling of keys and a mellow drum loops that suddenly shifts to melancholy guitars. MOB has a gift for creating pieces that are reserved, downbeat, and heavy all in the same breathe, while never losing the appeal or oozing lumbersexual charisma we've come to love him for.

These two Chicago deep dish weirdos managed to bang out 30 songs, over 4 different EPs in 45 days this summer, and still kept working on a forthcoming cassette release as well. Meth gentlemen? Jeebus Christmas. I love you both, and I'm also horribly scared for unsuspecting Chicago citizens.

"With no separation from Canadian bacon, I turn time on a date, not a date my time was spent, aggravation." v8 is clearly on a different realm and wavelength with his rhymes, but whether you can decipher it doesn't matter to him. v8 operates on a level that has more in common with a bugged out free jazz musician then any MC around, in that his voice and cadence are an instrument apart of Morbidly's sound scape, more than something you're going to memorize for later.

Take the track "more than a bucket of fried chicken" off the Blood Moses LP, where v8 waxes strange, but drops crazy lines like, "Satan is not the devil, and Jesus is nothing more than a dead Jew. Why don't you go and worship every leftover bone fragment from every part of eastern Europe..." The guy clearly butters his pancakes on both sides while applying lotions to the dried skin of girls he kept in a well - metaphorically of course.

Dead ass dudes, SLUDGE FACTORIE might be weird to some, but if you love the artsier side of hip hop or music in general, than you just might want to pay the $6.66 for each of the EPs, or grab the free Blood Moses LP to slowly wade your way into the weirdness. It's like your Uncle Bobbie, but set to incredible, dense production, and without the "special" hugs.