It’s the first single from the album, ‘Ultraglu’, a horrorcore rap based fantastical thirteen track recount of one charged up night of partying and debauchery!
“When I listen to music, lyrics are the last thing I pay attention to. What draws my ear to music is what’s going on sonically and rhythmically. Good flows or weird inflections. Not that lyrics aren’t important too, but I love listening to shit that relies purely on high octane energy more than conscious lyricism.” describes glu, who crafts his sound from this understated and, sometimes, forgotten subgenre of rap.
“To be honest, I barely knew horrorcore was a genre until after I recorded the album.” he says, “I didn’t go in thinking that’s what I was going to make, because I didn’t know it was a thing but I also quickly got a sense that what I was doing was weird and different from other shit I was hearing out there. I wanted to push my lyrics and beats to the extreme and The Party is a perfect example of what my extreme sounds like. “
The Party presents a minimalistic yet futuristic backing, with glu’s in-your-face vocals setting the pace and creating the composition’s tone. glu’s jarring delivery demands constant attention, this coupled with his unique flow patterns creates an atmosphere that is impossible for the listener to escape. The Party is the sonic representation of an out of control house party, chaotic, confronting, and energetic, but you need to be there. The energy is vibrant, turbulent, encapsulating, and unforget- table.
“I wanted to make something turnt. I was making all these crazy, weird experimental beats and outthere songs, and 2B from Big Ass Fish was like, “Fuck all that, you should just make this simple ass beat with the most ludicrous bullshit bars you can think of and make it the album opener.”
The whole album, he says is set over one evening as he describes its experimental vision. “If you spend life living in your dreams, they’ll turn into your nightmares. I just thought it was kinda experimental. It wasn’t until after that I showed it to some of my music writer friends that they said it was like this weirdly sardonic take on horrorcore and I was like “what the fuck is horrorcore?” And looked into it and a lot I heard and read about it fit exactly into what I was trying to do. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a horrorcore artist, but I think the elements are there, particularly in the album.”
The deeper into the night we go, the more the album (which is released in June) devolves into insanity, as glu gets lost in the fictional personna takes on during his encounters, pretending to be a rich and famous rapper as he works the room of a Hollywood Party. For his debut solo project, however, the man himself, glu, gives us glimpses of the darkness within his absurd exterior.
If you aren’t familiar with this sub-genre of hip hop, Horrorcore draws much of it’s fuel from subject matter most mainstream artists wouldn’t touch. Taboo subjects are not off limits, are explicit in vulgarity and harshness. Glu takes his cues from Odd-Future, filmmaker, Gaspar Noe and writer, Brett Easton Ellis (who wrote American Psycho and Less Than Zero).
“When done right, I think it can generate stronger emotional responses in people than doing some “real” shit. Everyone expects artists nowadays, especially lyrically, to be super real and honest about everything and their life which is probably why a lot of artists make shitty music in my opinion, cause most people and artists live boring-ass lives. Not saying there’s not a place for that, but I love pushing shit to the extreme and the absurd, while still barely clutching on to reality with your fingertips. When I lose touch of whether what I’m writing is based in reality or not, that’s when I come up with the hardest shit. I don’t even know what’s real and what’s not half the time. I love Yung Lean, and I was listening to heaps of his music while recording. Especially his early shit, you never have any idea if what he’s saying is true or not, and I think that’s fucking awesome. My rap group Big Ass Fish did similar shit in terms of lyrically crossing into absurdism but in a more comedic sense. When I was locked away in a dark place working on my solo debut, I wanted to shoot the same ideas about absurdism through my dark lens. “
“I don’t know if horrorcore is a dead genre, I just don’t think people identify with it as much anymore because of some its controversy, but Hip-Hop definitely seems to be moving in a darker, gothic direction. Even looking at Playboi Carti’s new album, which debuted at no.1 in the US, its whole sonic and visual aesthetic revolves around vampires and satanic symbols, so I think elements of it still carry in that darker side of Hip-Hop.”
ULTRAGLU’s explosive and psychedelic energy reflects the two week COVID-19 quarantine it was primarily recorded in. One moment featuring blissful atmosphere’s akin to YUNG LEAN, the next the hyper-aggression of JPEGMAFIA. It’s a distinctly Australian take on horrorcore, steeped in modern rap culture and the way we interface with the internet. Features are few and far between, but all compliment the sound glu has crafted.