Death Grips: Government Plates (RSD Essentials, clear vinyl) [HARVEST]

Why you'll love it

This RSD Essentials edition presses Government Plates on clear vinyl, made in the USA. Pitchfork named it Best New Music, and it scored 75 on Metacritic.

This edition

• RSD Essentials edition
• Clear vinyl
• Pressed in the USA

About the album

Most bands announce an album months ahead. Death Grips simply posted Government Plates online for free on November 13, 2013, with no warning at all, then put a music video up for every one of its eleven tracks. It arrived exactly 13 months, 13 days and 13 hours after No Love Deep Web, on their new Third Worlds label, set up with Harvest.

MC Ride, Zach Hill and Andy Morin recorded it in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Hilo, Hawaii, and it pushes their sound further into jagged electronics. The opener with the very long title crashes in at full speed, "Anne Bonny" and "Two Heavens" pile on the glitches, and "Birds," the album's single, is built around a heavily edited guitar riff played by actor Robert Pattinson on Hill's iPhone. "Feels Like a Wheel," "Big House" and the title track keep the pressure on to the end.

The first vinyl run was a 900-copy Record Store Day Black Friday edition in 2014, so this pressing is a welcome return. The Pattinson riff remains, as far as we know, the most interesting thing anyone has done with a borrowed phone.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Third Worlds / Harvest (cat# 2812191169), a reissue of the 2013 album.