It takes about nine seconds for Four Fists’ new record 6666 to prove Astronautalis and Doomtree co-founder P.O.S aren’t fucking around.
That’s when opening track “Nobody’s Biz” thunders along with such decisive, frenzied heaviness, it’s clear this is more than a casual hip-hop record. What transpires over the next 11 tracks is an exercise in trying to raise the volume on your listening device as loud as it can possibly go: You need amplification through the speakers to match the intensity of its creators, and here, the Minneapolis duo deliver a brash and emboldened record that bridges the worlds of Run The Jewels and Crystal Castles.
6666 is said to be seven years in the making, and its arrival feels like an explosion rather than a release; hyper-aware verses and politically-charged lyricism are matched with electro fury, chiptune bleeps, blog house beats, and more rhythmic hooks than a fucking pirate convention.
“This is something [P.O.S.] and I have been working on and dreaming about since we became friends in 2004,” says Astronautalis. Adds P.O.S.: “It’s way easier working with friends. It gets your juice moving quick. I think with what’s happened with our pairing, we have little chunks of each other that don’t come out in our own music.”
All told, 6666 is fearless in its approach and execution, a cinematic LP that has something to say, but is also so colorful in its many margins that the music itself feels like the score to some dystopian film where everyone dies at the beginning and goes off into another universe. The friendship on display here proves some metallic chemistry, but it also shows one and the other aren’t afraid to take chances. Tracks like “Joe Strummr” and “Coriolanus” are electro bangers that are freshly painted by the duo’s unflinching lyrical delivery.
Four Fists roll into Sonia in Cambridge this Saturday, and you can just feel the weight on their shoulders as they bring 6666 to town. Watching it get unleashed should be a god damn treat.
FOUR FISTS + ANGEL DAVANPORT + ESH :: Saturday, November 10 at Sonia, 10 Brookline St. in Cambridge, MA :: 8 p.m., all-ages, $18 in advance and $20 at doors :: Sonia event page :: Advance tickets :: Featured image by Graham Tolbert
