Edward Scissortongue’s LP “Better Luck Next Life” was heavily slept on. In my opinion, it was the most sonically interesting UK hip hop release of 2012. Spastic Max was the third single released from the Contact Play member’s debut solo effort and it’s easily the standout song off the project. The production on this track, like the rest of the album, is handled by Glasgow-based beatsmith Lamplighter who does an excellent job of crafting a gloomy soundscape. The thing about this song that really pulls you in is Edward Scissortongue’s visceral and lyrically deft narrative about the titular “Spastic Max”, a council estate dwelling drug addict.
Throughout the song, a portrait is painted of a sullen individual who carries out acts of theft and violence, intravenously injects drugs and contemplates suicide. Never does the song ever romanticise the bleakness of his reality and that is incredibly refreshing. Lines such as “It was a year ago this very day that the intravenous sludge pumping had taken off at a wild speed” and “Sitting in the fourth dimension he felt the raw depression of forty horsemen stretching his organs awful essence” are imaginative and allow the listener to peer into the eponymous character’s tragic existence. The visuals accompanying the track are basic, yet well done and allow the sombre mood to hit home with even greater force.
You can stream the video below and download Better Luck Next Life on iTunes.
