Doer by Secs

FROM THE OFFICIAL DOER PRESS RELEASE:

The luckiest among us know no more of the artist Secs than a few broad details concerning one or two of his more frivolous adventures, and yet even in these overtly comical (and often outright immature) capers there is an obsessive adherence to the same themes that inform his most tragic (and, perhaps, predictably, better praised) episodes. Take the infamous “Fur Coat” for example, a twinkly ditty written by the then-19-year old Baltimorean which appeared on a 2001 two-disc compilation of exclusive tracks put out by America’s first and best EDM label, Oakland’s Tigerbeat6 Records. The compilation received a 9.0 score from Pitchfork in a review written by website founder Ryan Schrieber nine days after 9/11, which singled out for praise Secs’ “hilarious hip-hop rap” (sic) in which he portrays himself as a semiclad vagrant stalking an alley behind the MTV Music Awards. As trivial as this joke may seem today, it contains the core belief around which Secs’ unique and provocative art has orbited in the ensuing years: an artist belongs in the alleys. Maybe not all artists, but at least one of them.

No one builds alleys: they arise of themselves in the space between two intentional constructions. They are liminal areas largely unaccounted for or invested in by those focused on what is “inside.” In a community where an artist’s visibility is tied directly to her success in business, the distinction between the rules of art and the rules of business must naturally atrophy, and the most fabulous freedoms of artistic creation become the uninhabitable spaces between safe enclaves, profitable places of artificial lights and (at least in the narrative of “Fur Coat”) ego-inflated pageantry. Once the true import of Secs’ silly alley-man skit is grasped, nearly all of the seemingly-disparate threads of Secs’ discography begin to reveal a reinforced braid: from the brazen copyright noncompliance of HONOR AMONG THIEVES (an aggressively anti-whitey and totally unauthorized Girl Talk album) and DANNIBAL (composed entirely of Steely Dan samples), to the playful obscenity of ACTUAL FUCKING and MANUMIT ME, to the morbid technological anachronism of SHAMANEATER, to the hypothermic resignation of PRESUMED DEAD, to the suicidal ideation of MARYLAND MANSIONS, even to 2003’s BEING RIDDEN, a tormented account of a twenty-two year old county boi becoming aware of his privilege. Ever since the little smartass first started freestyling live, professional music journalists have bemoaned the way Secs’ continuously-evolving stylistic mercurialism appears bereft of any logical progression. Which makes it so much more the satisfying when you opt to travel through his work as if moving through alleys, dimly-lit paths behind and between the content walled in by business. One quickly finds that rather than progressing from A to Z, we circle around them, and every point in between, seeing the same things again and again from different angles. To further plumb the imagery of “Fur Coat”, A might be seen as total obscurity and Z as a red carpet entrance to a televised award ceremony. Odd that such a young and promising prodigy would reject the sensible journey to stalk the alleys of transgression and expulsion, but downright astonishing that, nineteen years and almost as many albums later, Secs still occupies the alleys wearing only briefs and the gaudy titular garment, a cackling geyser of digital rhythms, empowered and imperiled in equal measure by his own compulsive curiosity.

This album has no rapping or singing on it, or any special guest features or cameos or anything like that. Rjyan made it all by himself with a bunch of obsolete MIDI machines at the “Old Lady Morgan House” the corner of 26th & North Calvert Street (the block immediately between the two blocks that have fallen into the train track over the last 5 years) in the eastmost room of the second floor. The genre/style of music is called FREEDOM CLUB, because it draws heavily on the Baltimore club music that obsessed Rjyan as a teenager but it does not really adhere to any of the genre’s tropes (hence the “freedom” part.)

Anyway thanks for coming to my TED Talk. My name is Gil Scassinatori and you have no idea how stressful being this kid’s manager is. Rjyan is available for interviews but as far as that goes I would suggest proceeding only with the utmost caution.

A bottomless black hole forever spewing its one syllable of obscenity at the sunlight

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