Filthy City, the debut album from modern Gotham's Gut Nose, encapsulates urban blight through two seamless sides of seething dystopian malaise: a seventeen minute beats tape on the A and nigh-twenty minute mix for the dancers on the flip.
Gut Nose sacrifices a freak show of corroded boom bap, noise, and psychedelic crate-digging to the spirit of our city's hip hop history across six paranoid movements on the A side. "Dreams & Visions" whispers the threat of "Teflon Love God", a bruising testament to El-P's social anxiety and Premier's scratched interjections. Both daring, though they yield to the crushing weight of "Oblique Collusion". The one-two finale of "New Medieval Times" and "Moral Exodus" telegraphs Gut's warnings to the world of this city's serfdom and hellbound virtues.
Mirroring New York City's truths, no one groove rules all. Gut Nose sheds the first half's cautious ambiance to reveal caustic confidence, challenging precedents in its form. The B-side exists on wax as a live mix, reflecting the single-take performance of Filthy City's first half. Whereas "The Unknown Allure" suggests the ghost of a local's swagger, "Unseen Force Manipulators" throttles down Myrtle Avenue with unfuckwitable intent. Bold with the cold stare of "Weeknight Shuttle Bus", a groove as forlorn and steady as a 4am commute, and taut with the furrowed brow of "Hoax Pattern," this concept, the Filthnoid Mixx, expands the promise of Gut Nose's earlier material into a volatile blend of lysergic warehouse rhythms.
