Vritra

The Jet Age of Tomorrow -- "The Journey to the 5th Echelon"

Even if you are a committed skeptic to the expanding cult of Odd Future, you cannot deny the genre name ascribed to the sophomore album of the space funk travelers the Jet Age of Tomorrow: electric sex music -- what you would expect from a group that channels a cosmic slop of N.E.R.D., Sa-Ra and Dam-Funk. Highly recommended for those inclined toward Afro-futuristic funk, sunbursts and sundry Alpha Centauri swag.

As OFWGKTA claims: "this Is A All Around Upgrade From The VOYAGER Release. The Quirky Spaced Out Sounds Will Have Your Ears Mind [Screwed] For Days, So We Advise Not To Do Drugs While Listening." Or at least not until 5 p.m.

Download: (via Odd Future)

- LA Times

"See the 5th Echelon, it's not just, your average place
It's a place, where you're allowed to explore your mind - freely
Explore those inner emotions, that you try so hard to hold in
It makes you realize... that all you need in this world is yourself
And if you have yourself... then nobody can stop you"

Intentionally or not the Odd Future collective plan doesn't seem to be to "Kill Them All" but to outproduce them all. In the five years since they began their ascent to hip-hop stardom, they've spun off as many or more solo albums and side projects than the Wu-Tang Clan did in the same timespan. One of those many projects goes by the mysterious name of The Jet Age of Tomorrow - a collaboration between Odd Future's own Matt Martians and Atlanta producer Hal Williams. The story goes that Martians was producing more beats than OF's founder/leader Tyler, the Creator could use and that even though he liked them they didn't always fit his sound/style. It was only natural at that point for Martians to spin off a solo project.

That doesn't explain the group's name though, because taken literally, it seems a bit absurd. After all we're already living in the jet age and have been for almost 75 years, dating back to the development of jet engines for aircraft use before World War II. If there was a "tomorrow" to the jet age that came decades ago when commercial air travel became affordable and accessible to the middle class, although with rising fuel prices and airline fees that trend seems to be inexorably reversing itself. By this point in recorded history that age seems almost antique, as we even had a short lived TV drama called "Pan Am" waxing nostalgic for airplane life in the 1960's. What's the real age of tomorrow? Is it science-fiction style molecular transporters? Is it magnetic levitation for super fast bullet trains? Or is it both and something else we can't even conceive of? We won't be able to say until we're living IN that tomorrow. If one can assume their name choice is intentional and not random then, it has to be to imply that like when the term "jet age" was coined in the 1940's, the future of that age was completely unknown, and therefore as impossible to predict as the future of mass transportation is today.

In comparison to their sound on "The Journey to the 5th Echelon," this explanation holds weight, given the emphasis on a technological and at times almost accidental sonic landscape. The inspiration for their sound would be groups like N*E*R*D and producers like Pharrell, preferring to cut the edge of what music should be instead of riding somewhere comfortably behind the blade. As such Jet Age (the shorthand I'll use for them from here on) are starkly in contrast to the rest of Odd Future in that rapping is not the focus of their music - and in fact it's quite often an afterthought. There are a handful of tracks which feature no vocals whatsoever, like the aptly named drum and bass oriented "Thump Thump" or the spaced out ethereal vibe of "SunBurst," a track perfect for the Hearts of Space. Even some that DO have vocals make only minimal use of them - you won't hear anybody speak for over two minutes of "Wonderland."

"This girl (ahh) I'm in a wonderland whenever she starts to speak
This girl (ahh) I wonder if she'll ever see something in me
Racing through my fantasy, racing through my fantasy
All I see is her and me, she's racing through my fantasy
Racing in my mind, all of the time
She's just racing through my fantasy, I see you whenever I dream"

There are also newcomers to the Odd Future sounds on vocals, such as the semi-serious rapstress Kilo Kish from hip-hop trio Kool Kats Klub (a name which would be unfortunate to abbreviate, though that was undoubtedly the point). Her playful vocals on "Want You Still" walk the line between a tripped out acid dream and a lament to love:

"How dare you carry on
with your stupid life like we don't belong
in our own brigade, camous and grenades
Sitting in the shade, drinking pink lemonade
Hardwood floors, cardboard box
All night long, hip-hop rocks!
MJ in the kitchen slide around your socks
I don't know, the whole thing... stopped"

Concerned Odd Future fans reading this who think they're going to hate Jet Age just might be right - this is definitely not an album for everybody. Experimentation is the order of the day, with samples that sound like they could come from Casio SK-1 keyboards, a game of Ms. Pac-Man, or a distorted keytar feeding back into an amplifier. Songs like "Sleep!" could be called the ANTI- Auto-Tune, being electronic without being harmoniously melodic. Before the Golf Wang posse goes into panic mode though, there are enough returns to form to keep Jet Age in the fold, such as Casey Veggies and Tyler appearing on "Welcome Home Son."

Tyler: "Suck it up, cock it up, time is when the clock is up
Cause you don't have to talk for us to chop it up (chop it up?)
Freezer burn, erection when I see you squirm
for me not to get inside your face, I'm the newest dermatologist
Blood on my shirt, no one acknowledged it
From teenage babes leaving dates I got to followin
Swallow it, clean it off, polish it
Axe you up in the back of my shack
Fuck some hollow tips
Throw you in my deep creek of self-esteem on some shallow shit"

Given those appearances are spaced fairly far apart in over an hour of music, "The Journey to the 5th Echelon" is still going to be a tough sell to both dedicated OF heads and casual listeners alike. That being said, and maybe because I got into OF a little later than the peers they are closest in age to, I'm not adamantly opposed to the experimental sounds and flows of Jet Age. If you're into listening to Hodgy or Tyler rap about being loners, outsiders, weirdos and psychos then "5th Echelon" is not for you - you're not going to hear enough of that to stay tuned in. On the other hand if you dig what Jet Age has to say about exploration of the mind in the opening paragraph of this review, from the opening track "Green Stars (Intro)," then this is your cup of tea - laced with LSD. The album's a mind fuck - sometimes in a good way, sometimes not, but it's far from a boring journey to take. - RapReviews

If you think “Blu Diamonds” sounds like an outer-orbit Odd Future record, you’re right. Pyramid Vritra is a tangential member of the OF fam and his sound is familiar: detached, sex-heavy lyrics over guttural production. “Blu Diamonds”‘ beat knocks like the echo in an abandoned stairwell. Its video looks like it was shot out of the bottom of a Heineken bottle. Pyramid Vritra’s LP The Story of Marsha Lotus is out November 21. - The Fader

In the grand scheme of Odd Future, The Jet Age of Tomorrow is the NERD to their Clipse, or something like that. It’s actually all not that direct an analogy, but the Wolf Gang is all over this and the sound is highly reminiscent of Pharrell and Chad’s early forays into the cosmos. The lineage also goes directly through Sa-Ra, whose Om’Mas Keith appears on “The Finer Things.” The recommend you not do drugs while listening for fear of acid Stendahl’s flops, but George Washington did not die so that we could not do drugs to drug albums. Also, an ounce of weed in California gets you a parking $100 ticket so why not. - The Fader

One of the unifying properties that’s tied together all of the Odd Future releases so far is their abrasiveness. On most of their songs they use a dual attack of hyperactive and unsettling beats paired with equally disturbing vocals. Think of Earl’s perfectly calm and detached, thousand yard stare, serial killer fantasy delivery on Earl and the bass and distortion collage called a beat he rapped over. Even on the more sedate albums of their oeuvre, like Domo Genesis’ Rolling Papers – definitively a smoker’s album – there’s still a palpable sense of menace lurking in the hazy atmosphere surrounding the music. This continuing and defining trend of implied violence makes the albums from The Jet Age of Tomorrow (in-house producers for OF) particularly atypical. Amongst a crew of thematic marauders, plunderers and killer where exactly does a group of tripped out intergalactic space travelers fit in?

The Journey to the 5th Echelon’s sound is somewhere close to the music that would be produced by a culture of sentient alien creatures who were raised on nothing but mid 00's Neptunes productions, Sa-Ra Creative Partners’ instrumentals and the more acid jazz leaning section of Madlib’s body of work. Locked away on an ark like space ship with copies of In Search of… and Miles Away, they’d spend generations perfecting the art of creating simple yet memorable hooks from stock sounds on synthesizers, while garnering inspiration from dwarf stars and nebulae they saw out the windows. “Wonderland” sounds exactly like this, it’s blatantly spacey but at the same time has just a bit of four on the floor to it to make it danceable. It’s totally the intro song for an as yet unmade MTV remake of Carl Sagan’s The Cosmos series – but instead of Carl Sagan it’ll be Pharrell because he’s the self appointed “Black Carl Sagan.” “Protozoa” is the type of light funk experience with vocal distortion that would retroactively serve as a perfect interlude in a Parliament Funk disc, except in that context it’d have to be titled something decidedly more over the top like “Electronic Baby Butt Funk.” In the same vein, “Burfday” is maybe the best song about all the things you can do on your 18th birthday – buy porn and go to the stripclub. Its a quick and light song that should appear on a new season of My Super Sweet 16, hopefully The Jet Age could preform it in some nice powder blue tuxedos with some easy choreographed dance moves.

The standout tracks of the album are the ones where they get vocals on the tracks that manage to get the same level of airiness and spaceyness as the music does. “The Finer Things” featuring Om’Mas from Sa-Ra actually surpasses a couple of Sa-Ra’s actual songs as far as sounding like it was created by those black aliens that created the pyramids.* That’s pretty impressive considering I’m pretty sure that Sa-Ra’s mission statement is – “make black alien music.” Om’Mas really brings in that rambling singing style that sounds perfect over Detroit influenced funk beats. Over the Jet Age’s interpolation of that style, which brings in more synth, the song gets so light it pretty much levitates – but it’s the slow levitation that makes you smile as it happens, like a kid being lifted into the air by a grip of red balloons in an old Disney cartoon. “Welcome Home Son” features Casey Veggies, who should work exclusively with The Jet Age because his style of breezy nondescript swag rapping sounds entirely at home over their “bumping ever so gently” space funk. Tyler, The Creator also drops in for a verse, and through production or him modulating his voice and flow he for a change doesn’t sound entirely like the creepy dude who draws X’s over the eyes of all the kids he hates in his yearbook. Surprisingly, that works.

To go back to the initial question of where The Jet Age fits in amongst the rest of the Odd Future works, after listening to 5th Echelon it’s pretty easy to pickup their signature touches in the various OF albums. However, in those albums they’re filtered into a darker place and stripped of their super spacey peculiarities. In their darker OF compositions you still get the feeling of space travel. While The Jet Age songs sound like they come from a Utopian peaceful alien society (like the black aliens that built the pyramids) the stuff they’ve done for Odd Future otherwise has the horrors of space built into it. Its more about the dread you’d feel on a long lonely space mission and serves as a great soundtrack to random acts of violence brought on by space madness. Thankfully, The Jet Age are prepared to give us music that supplements both points of view.

*What you didn’t know black aliens created the pyramids? A lot of heads will just tell you it was aliens, and history books will say it was just the Egyptians, but as we all know the real history lies somewhere in the middle. That middle would be black aliens who had knowledge of advanced mathematics and advanced synth-based funk. Early, knowledge jewel for Black History month right there. Spread the word y’all. - Mishka NYC

You may remember back to earlier this year and a certain Mixtape made by Producers The Jet Age of Tomorrow. The record, entitled The Journey To The 5th Echelon, was perhaps the most unsung LP to be dropped by any of the OFWGKTA collective. It was a shame because the album was an impressive piece of work. It might not have had the allure of blatant homophobia, misogyny or rape jokes, but it was impressive non the less.

In the wake of such indifference to a record, at least when compared to the rest of the collective, it’s nice to see those behind such a project actively still making work and promoting it ambitiously. Hal Williams aka Pyramid Vritra is the artist doing so. Earlier today he dropped the first track from his new album, The Story Of Marsha Lotus LP, due out on Stroll On Records. It couldn’t be further from the Odd Future norm; it tells the story of young lust and love in an ambitious, tender and hormone fueled way. Sure it contains a similar rhetoric to OF, but it does it with a pinch of salt and a glint in the eye.

Coming in at around 15 minutes long, the tracks flows and consumes almost like a jazz improvisation, the different elements of the track flowing into one another seamlessly and coherently.

It really is breathtakingly good.
- Crackintheroad

Somebody will surely write rap's musical family tree, with all its various groups, MC's, artists and offshoots (sorry, no pun intended!) ... that person's a better man than me though! The alternative hip-hop collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (abbreviated to either 'OFWFKTA' or simply 'Odd Future'), has thrown exciting new rap and hip-hop back under the spotlight in 2011. From Los Angeles, California, the group has spawned a wealth of new music, most notably Tyler The Creator and his album Goblin which received rave reviews for its hard-hitting themed rap and bold production. Another group in the Odd Future fold are Jet Age Of Tomorrow, the partnership of Matt Martians and Hal Williams, whose experiments in sonic exploration takes them into futuristic Afro-funk electronica. Hal in particular has caused a stir with his exciting production work, notably with his own combo Nobody Really Knows (NRK) and solo alias Pyramid Vritra ... I hope you're getting all this, if not then it's back to family tree??

These sort of people are prolific in their output, self-releasing most of their stuff free online, and while the commercialization of rap and hip-hop has inevitably caused splits and conflicts in the genre, Williams is part of the group aiming to take it in exciting new directions. The Story Of Marsha Lotus is actually the third part of a trilogy of unreleased albums, following on from 'Elouise' and 'Elenor' which were self-released through Facebook and suchlike. This one is available through London-based independent Stroll On Records and can also be streamed at the label's website: http://strollonrecords.tumblr.com/

The album has got 'sexual conquest' written all over it, which is the sort of thing you'd expect from a 19-year old black kid from Atlanta, Georgia, but its exciting elements of prog-rock and jazz-funk infused with modern hip-hop influences like Outkast and Eryka Badu, all topped off with an exciting production, make it an enjoyable listen. Williams would probably cast himself in the same mould as N*E*R*D and The Neptunes with their groundbreaking production to support a songwriting craft. The sprawling title track starts like a funk carnival but then disappears into a vortex of sound metamorphising into some kind of wild creature of electronica. In other words, get your headphones on!! There are also some lovely layered effects, drum loops and major beats ... that's all packed into its 15 minutes of sonic exploration.

There are plenty of other treats on the album. Second track 'Enlightenment' fizzes with all kinds of drum sample trickery and even sounds like a Massive Attack trip-hop beat with nerdy Beach Boy production effects and cooing, crazy man! 'Walter Flower's Technicolor Pyramids' is another opus at 18 minutes where he seems to have melded a series of stories and added effects which remind me of Prince at his most off-beat. Williams inhabits a storyteller's fantasy world and changes his voice to suit. There's hard rap for the hardcore, but again it's generally the bold production which stands out. 'Blue Diamonds' must be a nod to Tyler and his Odd Future padres, the only really straight rap song on the album, with a smokin' Neptunes-type production, like Kelis's 'Milkshake' a few years back. 'Surround' is an effortless Afro-funk instrumental, - Tasty Fanzine

Basement-musician Hal Williams isn't even 20 years old, but you wouldn't know it from his ever-growing catalog. The Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, Nobody Really Knows associate has already put out a pair of electro-funk-rap albums with Matt Martians as the Jet Age of Tomorrow. And on Nov. 21, Williams dropped his most fully realized effort to date under the guise of Pyramid Vritra, a rapper-singer-multi-instrumentalist hybrid with roots in funk, soul, jazz, hip-hop, and damn near everything else.

Yet, even with all these varied sounds, Williams keeps his songs (or thoughts, as he calls them) structured in a cohesive manner. In an ongoing e-mail chain, the Los Angeles-by-way-of-Illinois musician discussed what's next for him, the NRK crew, Jet Age, and more. Quite the workload for a dude who only started making music about four years ago as a hobby.

Regarding the new album, what instruments and hardware did you use recording it?

Ableton Live 8, a lot of software synths, random sounds from around the house and outside and me. Pyramid Murdock also co-produced a few songs with me, then it was all recorded at random locations in Georgia and California with my mxl900 and Macbook pro.

What made you decide to start messing with synths and keys instead of samples and whatnot?

I know how to do all of that stuff and have before, I just don't find sampling as fun as creating things from scratch. When I make a song, the sounds that get used are the sounds that feel right. Samples haven't felt right in a while, and the point is to make music that others sample after you're gone. Classic shit. I'm not even there yet. But when I do get there, it's over.

There are so many different sounds and styles on here, which makes me have to ask: what were listening to making this?

I originally made most of this album last year so more than likely it was a bit of Gary Wilson, Machinedrum, Dam-Funk, James Pants, the Streets, Mellowhype, Ace, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Bjork, Kit Ream, Matt, Kelis, Outkast, 311, Incubus, random shit.

You have a pair of lengthy, movement-based tracks. What was the reasoning beyond having those and then more "normal" track lengths?

I don't end tracks until they feel complete, rather it takes two minutes or 19. Each song is a thought. Incomplete songs are like incomplete sentences to me.

Is this a one-off solo project? I thought I saw you tweeting about that.

This re-release and my album Pyramid sometime next year will be my only solo projects. I have a lot of other projects in store though, so I won't completely disappear.

What's behind the decision to only do these two solo albums?

[The Story of] Marsha [Lotus], is the LP I have out now, is a revisited remastered and re-release. Pyramid is my first full album. I released a prelude album to Pyramid, called Pyramidvritra, that dropped on 11/11/11. The concept behind the album is that it cannot end but can only be halted or resumed. The goal, over time, in around 10 years, is for it to be a fragmented collection of my life's work. I'll have albums. But they will be few and may be many years apart. I'm a producer and collaborator at heart so my main focus (other than a few side projects for next year) is production, and always has been. About to be a super-producer in 5 or 6 years and get this money. Watch.

I remember seeing that you and Matt have been working on that Kilo Kish project. How's that coming along and what can we expect from it?

Most of it is done actually. She just has to record a few more things. Kish and Matt are brilliant. There's something for everyone on there. I don't know when it's being released just yet but when it does drop, it's over. Kish is perfect for this, she doesn't even realize.

Do you have other artist-specific projects in the works like Kilo Kish?

Remixes, Vince Staples, Mike G, The Internet, Andre McCloud and a lot more. A few side projects. You'll hear alot from me next year.

Speaking of collaborations, how was it recording with Quadron? I know you guys are huge fans, but beyond that, what are you all working on together?

Robin [Hannibal] and Coco [O.] are amazing. I could honestly just sit there and watch them create. They're both really nice. We had fun times. Coco is on my album Pyramid and the collab they did with Matt and Syd is insane. This is just the beginning.

What's next for Jet Age of Tomorrow?

Mostly production this year and next. Possibly a new Jet Age album late next year.

What's next for you and the guys in NRK? And how did you get involved with them?

NRK is finishing up and releasing a lot of projects next year. It's amazing how much everyone has grown. I can't even listen to the stuff that we have out now. We're always working. What I'm listening to now may not be out for a year. We all met in high school, and it went from there, we all understood each other, everyone was on the same page. - Prefix

I like this!! It's a really strong rap record, it has an insane looking sleeve, it has ace rhymes and beats, and it's fairly upbeat and at times sounds very strange and atmospheric...that's what you want from a record!! None of this “...all about the bling” bullshit. It's all dynamic dense beats and venting your spleen type raps. It's not full of the misogyny and posturing that can sometimes sully your listening pleasure of some records. It has a cheeky glint in the eye though and it has enough moments in it to delight all listeners. Well mebbe not all listeners but if you are a fan of Odd Future (who guest on this record) or Dalek you'll love this. Title track “The Story Of Marsha Lotus” is brilliant. It's like a free form jazz song structure wise, with yearning ryhmes and fluid beats. It's sweet!!! A short but effective record that will make many rap fans nod in appreciation, and cause numerous wiggers to say stuff like “...Safe...dope rhymes innit...” or summat. Limited to 500 copies... - Norman Records

http://clatl.com/atlanta/pyramid-vritra-pyramid/Content?oid=6238796 - CL ATL