90s Boyz - Instant Hero Status ALBUM REVIEW

Plunderphonics has always been an oddball in the music world. For the uninitiated, plunderphonics is the use of different audio clips put together to make an original composition. Anything could be used, but most examples are from news reports or very stereotypical educational videos from the 50s. One of the most mysterious groups in this genre is the 90s Boyz. While they have made mixtapes before this album I’ll be talking about like Mikhail Gorbachev: Alive and Kicking and …Meets Tha Gobbernopper, none have been more ambitious than their ‘debut’ album Instant Hero Status. This trio, known only as Oyster Tag, Secular Rhino, and Irony Hog, have presented their opus, and they certainly have no sign of stopping any time soon. Let me guide you through Instant Hero Status, if you can make it, that is.

Instant Hero Status is a plunderphonics album. At first listen, it seems like it’s going to be just noises overlapping each other. The opening track starts off with the beginning of a Google Pixel phone review, and that’s merely the first few seconds of that track. As you go through the rest of the tracks, you can catch a good amount of samples if you have a good ear. You can hear samples from MF DOOM, Shrek The Musical, Mungo Jerry, Phineas and Ferb, the Super Mario Odyssey soundtrack, and Roy Rogers. That’s only scratching the surface of what can be found in this record, but there’s another layer to be peeled away. The YouTube description says that Instant Hero Status that can be described as three things: ‘The soundtrack of President Garaj Mahal's new 90s Boyz plan. An introduction into Catholic Ethics. A fantastic collection of pain-piggy basement-blasters.’ Now, I tried my best to decipher this, but I couldn’t figure it out. This hour-long trip is at its peak, in my opinion, with the fourth track (fifth on YouTube) “How Dare You Question The San Andreas Fault,” a nearly nine-minute trek which ending feels like the final stop in life before you see the light.

The 90s Boyz have created a surreal trip and titled it Instant Hero Status. Many of the tracks here are surreal sample-filled experiences that can be only described if you listen to it. This is a unique record, and there’s not a lot like it, even in the rest of the 90s Boyz discography. The more you listen to it, the more you can find and discover some music. Well done, Boyz. Well done.


8/10


Stream Instant Hero Status here

YouTube

Bandcamp



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