You could forgive Horrorshow the temptation to return as if in triumph with their new single Unfair Lottery. Their consistent outshining of expectations to date suggests something special in the chemistry between lyricist Solo and producer Adit.
Where others may be swept up in delusions of grandeur, Horrorshow dig deeper into our collective psyche, looking for pre-polished signs of life. Unfair Lottery finds them with a renewed sense of purpose, crafting a thoughtful song tackling the idea of privilege—a theme often overlooked in local hip hop culture. This is not a song of guilt, it’s a refreshingly honest play on being “male, middle class and white”.
Adit acts as a conductor employing glissando-laced strings and operatic sopranos with a cinematic array of samples and live instrumentation. He’s a producer inspired, credited with the bulk of Spit Syndicate’s recent album and truly a studio fiend in great form. This is the first taste of the highly anticipated third album from Horrorshow.
Need we remind you?
• ARIA Award-nominated debut The Grey Space (2008) • Critically adored triple j feature album Inside Story (2009). • Sellout national tours • Main support on Bliss n Eso and Hilltop Hoods record breaking national tours • Big Day Out, Splendour, Groovin the Moo, Splash Festival (Germany), Sydney Opera House (Dr Seuss Meets Elefant Traks), Spiegeltent.
Horrorshow Unfair Lottery Launch Shows: Friday June 21 – Annandale Hotel SYD with Dialectrix Saturday June 22 – Northcote Social Club – MELB with Remi
Sydney hip hop duo Spit Syndicate return in 2013 with third album Sunday Gentlemen. After the success of previous releases Towards The Light and Exile, a hungry fan base have been waiting anxiously for the next instalment from Spit Syndicate. We catch up with emcee Jimmy Nice of the Double S, on the eve of the Sunday Gentleman release, here’s what he had to say.
aahh: What’s the first thing you guys plan to do on release day? Jimmy Nice: I’m actually working on release day. Release night will be a different story. I may hold off on full celebrations untill the 24th. The One Day Crew are putting on the first in a series of monthly parties called One Day Sunday. Sunday will be our best opportunity to get loose.
aahh: Sunday Gentlemen is quite an interesting title. Can you explain the concept behind the title and how it ties in with the overall themes of the album? Jimmy Nice: The name Sunday Gentlemen came about one night when we were coming home from the studio. We had stumbled across a bunch of books and random things people had thrown out. I saw a bunch of books sitting there and this hard cover book jumped right out at me. It was really nice, I usually like taking things like that home. When we got home, we had a read through and realised the book was Sunday Gentleman by Irving Wallace. Irving was a writer of his own choice, working six days of the week to keep the lights on. Sunday was the only day he kept for his own works. That screamed out at us. We find ourselves in a very similar situation, in how we make our music. It’s the 9-5 all week and then we write and perform on the weekends. We don’t yet have the luxury of making music as our job to keep the lights on.
aahh: Beauty In The Bricks was the first single released from Sunday Gentlemen and was produced by fellow One Dayer, Adit. What was it about this track, that attracted you guys to release it as the first single? Jimmy Nice: This was a song we finished really on, actually it was the first beat we worked on with Adit for the whole project. We never really started writing it as the lead single. As with other tracks, it was going to find it own place on the album. It’s a personal song, about two different views on relationships, mine and Nicks. We didn’t really write it with that hook in mind (…hums beauty in the bricks), it was just a bridge between the first verse and second verse. While we were in the studio recording we couldn’t figure out a chorus, we were honestly stumped. So we went with the bridge and it turned out really cool. It was the right song for us to come back with, we’ve been away now for 2-3 years. This track is a really good way to welcome new fans to our music and it’s a good indication on what the rest of the album sounds like.
aahh: The clip for Beauty in The Bricks was filmed in and around Sydney. Would you agree that the imagery of the clip reinforces the main themes of the track? Jimmy Nice: Along with being personal and emotional, the track was also a little ode to the city. As Sydney siders ourselves, we don’t usually get the opportunity to see or explore the rest of the city. We all get comfortable, with where we live, usually going to the same places without really getting out to new places. We went to these little pockets in Sydney, spots of beauty and took full advantage of it. The clip was shot over two days and it was painless.
aahh: The second single titled Folly, has a bit of a different vibe to Beauty In The Bricks, and is produced by Stylez Fuego. What was it like working with that guy? Jimmy Nice: That was new for us, we spent two weeks in Melbourne linking with various producers. We usually contact producers and spend the time with them. We’d be spending days on end in the studio. The session with Sylez was an inspiring experience and was great to see. Stylez Fuego is a gun and he works really quickly. On the first day, he did a quick mock-up of a beat and I wrote my verse in the studio to that. On the last day of our time with Stylez, the beat you hear on the track came to be. It was a nice new experience and really placed an emphasis on how far we’ve developed..
aahh: How would you describe the differences between Sunday Gentleman and say your last release Exile? Jimmy Nice: Yeah, I don’t think we’ve steered to far away with what we’ve presented with Exile. Both releases have similar themes, both are very honest and high energy, a lot of light and shade, the whole creative process really has matured. Adit’s production is a lot more experimental now. We’ve been a lot more experimental in our vocal delivery, trying to incorporate new things and push it further. It’s not a ridiculously different approach to Exile but people will see the progression.
aahh: There’s been some amazing artwork released in association with Sunday Gentlemen. Both singles have had some killer covers done and of course the album cover is quite different to what we would usually see. Who’s been handling the design and how does these designs tie back to your music? Jimmy Nice: We had an idea, and a vision of what we wanted for the artwork. We really wanted it to tie in with the themes of the album. April77 Creative handled both single artworks and the album cover. We’ve worked with him previously on Exile, and Towards The Light. He knows what we are like. The main challenge was how to properly convey the themes within our music, how do we translate that to the visual. It’s hard to tell how people will respond to it. I really like the finished design, it’s something new and different. Again, I’m not sure how some people will respond to it. I think cover design is highly important. That artwork and imagery ties to your identity, you should take it as seriously as the music inside the cover.
aahh: I want to ask you about ObeseTV, you guys featured in Episode 1 of the new show and have been with Obese Records for quite sometime now. We’ve seen a lot of artist in the past start their owns labels etc. Do you plan to stay with Obese for the foreseeable future? Jimmy Nice: Obese was our start and it was for a lot of other artists, for now our focus is solely on this record. Not where we will be one year or even five years from now. We’ve been working on this record for two-three years now and we just want to get the most out of this release. Who really knows what the future holds.
aahh: You have a huge national tour coming up soon with Jackie Onassis, what’s some of your favourite things to do while on tour? Jimmy Nice: Eat… dumplings are always a favourite. We like to check out new spots, enjoy the time away. A lot of us are leaving jobs and mundane shit like that. Any chance to get away with a great group of friends is always enjoyable, and with these guys it’s a real privilege. The songs you spend two-three years recording, writing and polishing, the real reward is when you take them on the road and see the people enjoying them.
aahh: The One Dayer crew recently unleashed a brand new podcast titled One Day Radio? And I believe that you guys are also holding a monthly event in Sydney. Is this the first steps in seeing more content coming out from the One Dayer Crew as a whole? Jimmy Nice: Definitely, that’s been our little banner we’ve been riding under and it includes Spit Syndicate, Horrorshow, Joyride and Jackie Onassis. We all grew up together, went to school together and make music together. We really want to strengthen that connection, and have it more as a collective as appeased to four different acts. These guys are family and people we see on the reg, it’s not just different acts coming together, we all share a strong bond. Anything we can do to strength that brand is a positive.
aahh: We have all heard that the legendary Nas is hitting our shores for the movement festival and Spit Syndicate have been lucky enough to be named on the bill. Nas has been pretty influential in a lot of artists careers here in Australia. Are you the same? Jimmy Nice: Definitely, Nas is one artist we’ve looked up too and who has had a big role in influencing our music. It’s hard to tell how it will go. Obviously with festivals like this we’re not at the top of bill, buts it’s good to get up and do your thing. It’s also a great opportunity to expose your music to people who might not have seen it otherwise. It’s a great opportunity and we jumped at. It’s inspiring to see artists like Nas and Bliss N Eso on the bill, people who you look up to. It’s a great privilege to share estate with the real kings.
Spit Syndicate – Sunday Gentlemen is available now through Obese Records.
Jump on your pushie and tour around Sydney with Spit Syndicate in the video for their great new tune Beauty In The Bricks. Produced by Adit from Horrorshow (who’s definitely left his touch on the track with its soulful vibe).
Beauty In The Bricks is the first taste of Spit Syndicate’s third album Sunday Gentlemen which will be out next year.
“We are first and foremost lyricists – that said, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, I guess. But we take song writing and hip-hop very seriously.”- Nick Lupi
You can catch the Sydney duo at the following shows:
Thurs 25 October – Transit Bar, Canberra, ACT Fri 26 October – Rhino Room, Adelaide, SA Sat 27 October – Laundry Bar, Melbourne, VIC Fri 2 November – Ya-Ya’s, Perth, WA Sat 3 November – Mojo’s, Fremantle, WA Fri 9 November – Great Northern, Byron Bay, NSW Sat 10 November – Sprung Festival, Brisbane, QLD Fri 16 November – Annandale Hotel, Sydney, NSW
With killer new single Beauty in the Bricks dropping October 5th (Obese Records) along side a fresh new music video directed by James Chappell (A Few Best Men), Inner West Sydney’s very own Spit Syndicate are back big time and ready to drop their groundbreaking new album Sunday Gentlemen early 2013.
Featuring production highlights from the best in the business, Styalz Fuego (360, Seth Sentry), M-Phazes (Drapht, Bliss n Eso), Adit (Horrorshow), and J-Skub (Illy, Owl Eyes) and an impressive list of guest vocalists to be announced in the coming months.
“The production style is sleek, varied and tips its hat to the past while being firmly locked on the future.”- Jimmy Nice – Spit Syndicate
Lead single Beauty in the Bricks is indicative of the album’s prowess. Produced by Adit (Horrorshow) this sets the tone for the rest of the album with a powerful love letter to their hometown; rejecting the monotony of routine and celebrating everything brand new.
“We are first and foremost lyricists – that said, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, I guess. But we take song writing and hip-hop very seriously.”- Nick Lupi – Spit Syndicate
Beauty In The Bricks Tour
Thursday, 25th October Transit Bar, Canberra, ACT Tickets: http://www.moshtix.com.au
Spit Syndicate are currently bunkered down the studio working like crazy on their third studio album, which is set to drop during the second half of the 2012. “We’re very excited about having new music out, this new album will be our strongest yet; we’re working with Styalz Fuego, Adit, M-Phazes, Matik, amongst others” said Nick Lupi.
Spit Syndicate uploaded a a sneak-peak from the next instalment of their Best Intentions mixtape series, putting their own twist on Kimbra’s monster hit Settle Down.
If you happen to be in Brisbane on Friday 11th May, you can catch Spit Syndicate at Alhambra Lounge.
Did You Hear? marks the return of Horrorshow, one of the most exciting young hip hop groups in the country. Did You Hear? sees MC Solo paying tribute to some of hip hop’s greats whilst making some irreverent and humorous observations on the local scene.The production sizzles and sparkles under the careful direction of Adit with a little help from a blazing horn section.
It’s been another incredible year for the duo – they’ve programmed Rage, sold out countless shows, and rocked festivals nationwide – culminating in their main support slot for arguably the most successful local hip hop tour on record – Bliss N Eso’s Running on Air Tour. Horrorshow are well within the sights & ears of eager punters and starting to create some serious buzz amongst industry folk worldwide.
This is the first taste of things to come from their third and much anticipated new album, set to drop in the second half of 2012.
Rapper tag #37 live from Brooklyn, NYC – The Rapper Tag Jagganaut marches on with MC Solo from Horrorshow, chilling it back a minute in Brooklyn NYC.
Horrorshow recently performed at the One Day at The Basement show earlier this year. The gig featured all acoustic sets from Joyride, Spit Syndicate and Horrorshow and was based around the guys reimagining their songs using the talents of their musician friends from other inner west bands like Made In Japan and Milan. If peeps are interested in tracking down some more recordings from the night, acoustic versions of two songs - Waiting For The 5:04 and a cover of American Girl - are available on the bandtag download cards that come with their new merch.
Horrorshow || Elefant Traks || Youtube
This is a brand new track called Public Consumption from Elefant Traks crew Horrorshow. This little gem was cooked up recently and has now cracked over 1000 downloads in less then 24 hours. Attending Fort Street High School, whose musical output includes Josh Pyke, Unkle Ho (The Herd) and Joelistics among others, both Solo and Adit were heavily involved in bands, ranging from jazz through to rock.
Along with fellow school mates and current One Dayers, Spit Syndicate, they embraced hip hop as the genre made big strides in Australia. Horrorshow have officially solidified their position in the ranks of Australias finest. Check out the new range of Horrorshow merch available at Groovin The Moo and the Running On Air Tour. Each item comes with a free bandtag download card which includes two unreleased acoustic recordings (American Girl and Waiting for the 5.04) from the recent show @ The Basement in Sydney this year. It also includes the brand new song Public Consumption as well as a few songs from the Inside Story and Grey Space albums. You can’t get these acoustic songs anywhere except this sick little card.
Nick Lupi from the Spit Syndicate catches up with allaussie hip hop to talk about their new release Exile, touring, competing with hip hop legend Ozi Batla plus more:
aahh: Exile has just dropped lads, congrats on the release. Brilliant is something that comes to mind. Tell us a little about the album? Nick Lupi: Big ups Jim, thank you – glad you like it. I much prefer to let the music speak for itself rather than try to describe it with words, but in terms of the album, it’s the culmination of a lot of late nights and long studio sessions – myself, Jimmy and Adit all put a lot of work, time and love into it. We’re stoked to have it out there, especially since it had been so long since our last release.
aahh: What were some of the main inspirations behind Exile and how did you draw on these in the creative process? Nick Lupi:The obvious answer for inspirations behind the albums comes from the experiences that we’ve had over the past two years: traveling overseas, touring the country, real life shit like moving out of home, balancing work, music and study, personal relationships, the general goings on of the world at large. We are firm believers in putting lyricism at the forefront of writing songs – that’s the sort of music we like to listen to, where the words count just as much as the music. We drew on all of the aforementioned experiences that we’ve had over the past two years and wrote the album.
aahh: Starry Eyed is the lead single from Exile, it is also the title of the national tour which we will talk about a bit later on. What was the reason behind picking Starry Eyed for the lead single and tour title? Was it simply because it was your favorite song off the album? Nick Lupi: I wouldn’t say it’s our favourite song of “Exile” – although we do dig it – it was the lead single because it’s the most (maybe only) radio-friendly song we had on the album. We didn’t make the album with radio songs in mind (something we should probably start doing if we want any serious airplay!). Starry-Eyed was the last song we wrote, it came together in the last few weeks before we had to mix and master the record, Adit came through with this catchy, swinging piano-driven beat and the song was built around that. We named it the Starry-Eyed tour just because the song is enjoying a few spins at the moment on radio.
aahh: Exile has been described as being a ‘very accessible’ album for even the non hip hop fans? Do you think that this is correct or do you think that Australian Hip Hop has reached a point where people realise that this isn’t just a few Australian guys trying to be American? Nick Lupi: I think that point was reached a few years ago, I think “The Calling” was probably the album that deaden that stereotype for many mainstream listeners. “Exile” is quite a dense album lyrically but we tried to make the songs easy on the ear as much as possible, so it’s a big compliment to be told it’s described as “very accessible”.
aahh: The album was released on the same day as one of the kings of Australian Hip Hop Ozi Batla’s – Wild Colonial and still managed to debut at #8 on the ARIA charts and #3 on Air. What did you guys think of that? Nick Lupi:You’re right, Ozi is very much a king of Australian hip-hop – so it’s a bit daunting to be dropping on the same day as him. To have both records drop on the same day and chart within the top 10 is great to see – we were stoked with it, it’s a good look for Sydney hip-hop. Big shout outs and much much respect to Ozi, Sandro and the Elefant Traks crew – they’ve been holding down Sydney and beyond for 10+ years, it’s crazy shit.
aahh: There has been a lot of discussion lately surrounding the term ‘Urban’ and it’s application to the Australian Hip Hop music scene. What is your point of view on this subject and does it at all affect you as a performing artist/crew? Nick Lupi: I couldn’t care less about what they call Australian hip-hop. I agree the term ‘urban’ is a bit messy and very dated and I can see how people might have a problem with it, but I wouldn’t say it has any sort of effect on us.
aahh: 12 Dates have just been announced for the national Starry-Eyed tour. What are some of your favorite destinations around Australia and who will be some of the support acts? Nick Lupi: We had an absolute ball on the last tour we did with the Horrorshow boys, pretty much every date was wicked so it’s hard to pick favourites. Melbourne is always a favourite, Brizzy too, we had an amazing time over on the West Coast last time as well (Mojo’s at Fremantle – god damn!). All will be revealed in the next few days, so I can’t tell you all of them. But the supports for Sydney will be Thundamentals, Skryptcha (overage) and Skryptcha, Daily Meds for all-ages.
aahh: Spit Syndicate are members of the OneDayer Crew which encompasses Adit and Solo from Horrorshow. What’s it been like owning the last 12 months with these two? Especially after their Inside Story release? Nick Lupi: “Inside Story” has got to be one of the strongest local releases to come out in the past five years, in my opinion (which of course is a little bit biased). It’s a little bit scary being in a crew with Solo and Adit because they are such absolute freaks in what they do, but at the same time I couldn’t be prouder.
aahh: Triple J recently held a comp in conjunction with M-Phazes and Unearthed, DJ Joyride entered as an emcee, he also features on one track on the album. Quite a talented guy you have behind the decks. Will we see more from Joyride in the future? Nick Lupi: Man, Joyride is seriously ON SOME SHIT. He’ll be the first to tell you that he couldn’t do a scratch routine to save his life, but is most certainly one of the most talented cats I’ve ever come across. He does try his hand at rapping from time to time but where you’re going to see him shine is with his band, Joyride and the Accidents (Adit is also in this band, so is Jono from Made in Japan). The man is a crazy songwriter and he is going to blow the fuck up, gotta do as many gigs with him as we can before that happens..
The ‘Starry-Eyed National Tour’ is guaranteed to be the biggest tour yet from one of the country’s most exciting hip-hop groups – do not miss this tour when it rolls through your town.
Touring throughout July, tickets on sale now from here.
Spit Syndicate are set to take Australia by storm next week when they drop their sophomore LP titled Exile. We have already had a quick sneak peek at the album and let us tell you, get excited. Not to give too much away, we’ve decided to award the ‘Cover Of The Moment’ to Spit Syndicates – Starry Eyed single cover (just wait till you see the LP). You may or may not have seen this one, but it features two tracks both produced by fellow One Dayer, Adit(Horroshow). The guys over at April77 Design never seem to fail to impress.
Spit Syndicates full LP Exile will feature production from super producer M-Phazes as do rising beatsmiths JSquared (Melbourne) and Cam Bluff (Brisbane stay tuned for more on this guy). Guest vocalists are restricted to Spit Syndicate’s One Dayer family; Solo, Joyride (Spit Syndicate’s DJ) and the divine Sarah Corry. At the moment you can check out a new Spit Syndicate track taken from Exile titled Showtime feat. Solo (produced by M-Phazes) over at the guys FB page here.
Starry Eyed Tracklisting:
1. Starry Eyed
1. Crooks and Crimescenes
Exile Tracklisting:
1. Exile
2. Crooks and Crimescenes
3. Showtime feat. Solo
4. Exhale 5. Starry-Eyed
6. Pretty Girls Make Graves
7. Kings Only
8. Disruption
9. Table for Two
10. The Creditors feat. Joyride
11. Can’t Go Home feat. Sarah Corry
12. Contour Lines feat. Solo
13. Endgame
In a side note DJ Joyride has just dropped quick little dubstep number in honour of Milo and Jono amongst others, titled First Call. Check it out below.
