Relying heavily on sparse, boom-bap style production with dark apocalyptic overtones, rapper/producer June Marx delivers Body of God, a brief 38-minute record that’s doggedly on message lyrically and resolutely monochromatic musically. The non-lyrical half of that equation is not a problem. The Brooklyn artist, and member of Twin Perils is extremely talented when it comes to building tracks using classic sounding beats and then augmenting them with twinkling Horror movie synths, heavily distorted guitar tones, or processed ghostly sampled voices. It’s lyrically where the album really comes up lacking. Marx has a sleepy, mumbling delivery that doesn’t really jibe with the paranoid atmosphere he has so carefully crafted musically. With this, his lyrics lean on clichés and rote ideas that speak boldly without saying much of anything. Time and again, with a few notable exceptions, a great beat is introduced only to be paired with lyrics that don’t equal the music’s depth. But a guy this skilled at beat construction is bound to make a few great tracks despite his lyrical shortcomings.
One of those highlights is opener “The Perilous Path” which sets the tone for the whole album with its pounding, ominous beat augmented by unnerving synths and blown out guitar blasts. He states his intentions on the chorus “I came to wage war,” and he sounds convincingly militant but, as stated above, nothing much is said beyond typical rebel-stance posturing. “Child of the Night” lets some light into the room with a swaggering beat and chiming synths. “Napalm Clouds” has a throbbing bassline, cracking snare hits, and a haunted house organ but is let down by its lyrics. Lines start promisingly like “Fist and foremost, Praise God / Silently saluting soldiers in the graveyard” only to devolve into “I’m a man that has overcome great odds / Life’s a gamble go ahead and play them cards / And stay away from fake broads and evade frauds.” Elsewhere, on “Euphoria”, Marx raps, “These days my mind expresses like a tickin’ bomb / I live among uncivilized, shifting eyes / They bring demise and slither in disguise / I’ma hit em with surprise.” Some might argue that these type of simple rhymes work perfectly with the murky boom-bap that Marx creates and that might be true if Marx delivered his lines with more urgency, a little energy can go a long way. As it is, it seems like the concepts he introduces in his songs, big picture stuff like life, death, betrayal, war, and politics, deserve more than just the platitudes they are addressed with here.
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“Natural Selection”, the best track by far on Body of God, offers a way for Marx to proceed successfully as a rapper. As on “Child of Night” the beat here is boastful with nasty guitar licks and blown out synths creating a hectic, joyful atmosphere. Also as on “Child of Night” Marx’s delivery works best here, his side-of-the-mouth flow offering a nice contrast to the chaos going on around him and his lack of lyrical profundity goes unnoticed in an atmosphere like this. Going forward this accomplished producer who is more than capable of creating beats both portentous and exuberant should sell the former to other artists and keep the latter for himself.
