FADER PREMIERE:
Gavin Mays' Cities Aviv project is self-described "total Memphis outsider art," combining "broken rap," sample-based production and noisier rock elements (Mays used to play in local hardcore band called COPWATCH ) in a sound that is at once very internet age and seemingly all his own. "URL IRL," the self-produced lead single from his just-announced Come To Life LP, takes Dilla-style sampling to a hyperactive, joyful, almost footwork-fast extreme, while Mays erupts in a series of sunken, shout-rapped affirmations, racing alongside the beat in a manner that only seems to underscore the off-kilter meter of the rhythm he's chosen to rap over. It jams, in a giddily counter-intuitive way, and while it may only further obfuscate the enigmatic inner workings of its creator's brain, Mays' explanation of the title paints him as something of a digital era philosopher: "URL IRL is a pseudonym for YOU IN REAL and I IN REAL. To be fully realized. The internet enables interaction between conscious bodies unlike ever before. This in turn hosts unveiling of each one's true self. The track is a dichotomy of realizations involving modern worldly existence and total eternal existence. Blindly accepting self love in the face of your mirror." Come To Life, about half of which was produced by Mays himself, is out January 28th, 2014 via Young One Records. Tracklist below.
Stream: Cities Aviv, "URL IRL"
1. INTRO
2. FOOL
3. HEAD
4. URL IRL
5. DISSOLVE
6. CTL1 feat. Abdu Ali
7. PERPETUATE THE REAL
8. REALMS
9. (SELF 100) KNOW WHO YOU ARE
10. INTERLUDE
11. (VIEW 180) PICTURE ME GONE
12. STILL feat. BIZZARH
13. WORLDS OV PRESSURE
14. DON'T EVER LOOK BACK
