4th Wall: The invisible wall through which the audience views the characters of stage and screen.
City: a large or important town.
What if hip hop was more about telling poignant stories rather than simply representing your neighbourhood?
What if the music featured no bass lines or drum patterns used previously by other artists and the MCs inhabited different characters as an actor would, rather than just sprouting opinion after opinion?
If you hear anything like this, you would have just stepped into 4th Wall City.
4th Wall City were proud to release their debut album Flight of the Raven on Saturday the 14th August at the ‘Live at the Wall’ venue in the Bald Faced Stag hotel, 345 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt.
The duo formed in 2004 in the hope of creating something unique in hip hop. Nick Miller (Sizknac) had a background in both hip hop and metal (playing lead guitar in metal band ‘Discontent’), but felt a need to push his skills to a new place. Justin Grainger (Tuscan) had a background in writing rhymes and had emceed at drum and bass parties organized by 4th and West (who eventually became Foreign Dub); however, he felt that the content of his lyrics would be better contemplated through the medium of hip hop.
Their music is best described as Hip Hop, however, elements of electronica and metal are also present. Rust of ‘The Vangarde’ has described their music as “a cross between aussie hip hop and Rage Against The Machine”.
In 2009, their track Ode to the Villain was featured in the Australian film The Combination which had a national cinema release and received critical acclaim. The film was credited as having a strong soundtrack in the majority of reviews both written and screened.
4th Wall City will be performing a number of free concerts in Youth Centres across Sydney commencing in November 2010 to promote Flight of the Raven.
“..we think your music adds something incredible and powerful to the film. The ability for the song to really affect the audience is something to be proud of.”
David Field (Director of the feature film ‘The Combination’ in reference to the song ‘Ode to the Villain’)
“…you did such a strong performance which proved to the usual crowd that this night doesn’t owe to any genre or sound… we really appreciate the stronger daring acts like you, and it will be continuing performances like yours that see this project through”.
James Shirlaw (Coordinator of Exquisite Corpse at Oxford Art Factory)
“You are like a cross between aussie hip hop and Rage Against the Machine”.
Rust (Nick Platers) from The Vangarde- Best Unsigned Dance/Electronica in Australia 2007, Best Video 2008 at the prestigious Music Oz awards
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