Billy Woods has the highest batting average in the game. Between his solo records like hiding places And MAPSand his collaborative album with Elucid as Armand Hammer, this guy has a number of stone-cold classics. And, while no one would claim that Woods’ albums were light-hearted (these are not party records), bird scarer Represents his deepest darkness to date.
This is not your typical horrorcore record. Others, like the Geto Boys, Gravediggaz and Insane Clown Posse, approach slasher aesthetics and shock tactics. But what Billy Woods has created is even more A24 than Blumhouse.
Sure, the first track is called “Jumpscare”, and it opens with the sound of a film reel spinning, followed by a spooky music box and the line: “Ragdoll playing dead. Mad dog in the yard, car won’t start, it’s bees in your head.” It’s setting you up for typical horror flick gimmicks. But in the end, it is psychological torture. The cacophony of voices creates space for unknown screaming, and Woods feels like a mission statement:
“The English language is violence, I hotwired it. I grabbed the master’s tools and dialed in.”
Throughout the record, Woods asks his producers to create tension, not cheap scares, to make the listener feel uncomfortable. “Waterproof Mascara” transforms a woman’s sobs into a rhythmic motif. On “Pitchforks and Halos”, Kenny Segal produces the sonic equivalent of a POV shot of a serial killer. And the DJ Harm-produced “All These Worlds Are Yours” has more in common with Throbbing Gristle’s early industrial than with some of the record’s other tracks, such as “Golgotha” which combines boombap drums with New Orleans funeral horns.
That dense, sometimes scattered production is paired with lines that evoke the real-world horrors of oppression and colonialism, with scenes that seem taken straight from Bring him back: “Trapped a housefly in an inverted pint glass and waited for it to die.” And later, Woods went from rant on “Corinthians” to warning people about turning a blind eye to the massacre in Gaza:
You can’t tell me shit if you never came back from the dead
Twelve billion US dollars looming over the Gaza Strip
You don’t want to know what the cost of living is
What is the cost of hiding behind the eyelids
When your back is turned, secret cannibals lick their lips
The record features some of Woods’ finest lyricism, balancing confrontation with philosophy, fear with emotion. billy woods’ bird scarer Available on Bandcamp and most major streaming services including Apple Music, Qobuz, Deezer, YouTube Music, and Spotify.
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