The Bloody Beetroots - Hide

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I looked through some of the artists I have reviewed in the past 5 months, and realized I have yet to review any kind of EDM.  It is not a genre I am particularly knowledgeable about, so I have been hesitant to throw in my two cents when I am not as versed in the “rules” (for lack of a better word) of the songwriting or sonic structure associated with it.  But it was brought to my attention that it is such a new genre (in comparison to “guitar music”) that there are far more frontiers that can be explored and considered new or original.  That being said, since the genre is relatively new to me, I wasn’t looking for something that reinvented the wheel, just something different and interesting.  Enter the Bloody Beetroots.

            Before I get to any kind of review or nitpicking on my part, let me start by saying it is important to not judge an album by its cover art.  I hate everything about the Bloody Beetroot’s cover art on their new album Hide.  It looks like a roller derby poster with a middle aged (venom masked) Spider-Man with razor teeth holding what seems to be a reanimated dead woman with a bloody baseball bat.  Seriously, looks like it could be a grind-core cover.  There was one glimmer of hope on the album art, which was a little red circle in the upper left-hand corner that says “Collaborations with Paul McCartney, Peter Frampton, Theophilus London, Sam Sparro and Tommy Lee.” 

            So bypassing my reservations about the ridiculous cover art, and the potential of hearing Tommy Lee on something willingly, I listened to the album.  The Bloody Beetroots are laughing somewhere because I’m pretty sure they are making fun of my inability to take chances.  The album is super interesting.  I have a suspicion that I might not be the only one the Beetroots are making fun of.  I think higher on the list than me might be Skrillex and company.  Or American dub step in general.  Hopefully this is coming across as a good thing to anyone reading.  If it doesn’t seem like it yet, its totally getting there.

            I admit, at first listen I went right to the McCartney collaboration.  I really wanted to hear what he had contributed to the album.  Not in any way what I expected.  McCartney has been a busy man, with his own album NEW coming out last month (which sounded like a solid years worth of work in and of itself), and his track on this album, one of the two remaining Beatles has worked hard to stay current, and it shows.  To me (and I’m sure plenty of other skeptics) the inclusion of McCartney’s vocals (which were sang specifically for this album and not sampled) was a huge boost in credibility.  Not to mention a great song and selling point for the album.

            Sonically The Bloody Beetroots are a mixture of deep bass warble, arpegiated high end, and top tier production, specifically the mixture of real and sampled drums, which is really interesting.  Obviously there is more to their sound then those two sentences, but again, EDM is pretty new to me.  The songwriting is impressive when one looks at the breadth and scope of songs written for this album. It is as self indulgent and diverse as Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, but totally its own creation.  Where it seems like Daft Punk got in their Delorian and went back to the 70’s, it sounds like The Bloody Beetroots went to 2070 and came back with this CD full of crazy-twisted-Back-to-the-Future-tangent-universe songs.  I truly enjoyed the album as a whole, and I am curious how their next release will up the ante on this album.

            Listen to the McCartney collaboration “Out Of Sight”

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