EXPERIMENTAL RAP ACT LOOCCAM TO RELEASE TWO SINGLES FROM FORTHCOMING DEBUT ALBUM
BUFFALO, NY. New recording artist looCcaM releases the singles “Crossmess Parzel” and “en nègre blanc” in November 2022, from debut full-length silence exile cunning.
October 23, 2022
looccam.beats@gmail.com
For Immediate Release
looCcaM’s debut single “en nègre blanc” will be released on Spotify and in stores world-wide on November 1, 2022. “Crossmess Parzel” will be released in like manner on November 18, 2022. These tracks exemplify the aesthetic ambition, eclectic style, and ample range that will be more fully explored on the debut album silence exile cunning which is slated for release in Spring 2023.
looCcaM pushes experimentation in rap past its limit, while still staying firmly rooted in a grimy, NY rap style. The project incorporates a wide range of influences accumulated over a long-considered experimentation with the possibilities of rap music as a form, from trip-hop to punk rock and Russian futurist poetic theory. Love it or hate it, listeners will undoutedly acknowledge looCcaM as entirely new, and as a project with ambition and courage that are rarely seen in art of any kind today.
The project consists of two brothers from Buffalo, NY, Timothy and Patrick Collins. Tim is behind the lyrics, vocal performance, aesthetic design, engineering and mixing. He is a published poet and theorist, and a sometimes teacher. Pat has released music under Definition and as part of the rap group 25 Metro. He has been an active member of Buffalo’s underground hip-hop scene for several years. The looCcaM project is the product of many years of collaboration and experimentation with rap vocals and beat culture.
Musically, looCcaM is beholden to the power and energy of hardware. Pat has been mastering the MPC for years, and many tracks on the album celebrate a classic low-fi, sample-based boom-bap aesthetic while others seek out new territory by incorporating 808s. alien drum programming and synth arrangements. The mood ranges from playful party themes, to abrasive gothic-punk anthems.
Lyrically, looCcaM attempts to fuse the avant garde poetic tradition with raw, hardcore MCing. “It’s a combination that I’ve always felt was meant to be” Tim explains, “but that never came together naturally or without much effort and careful thinking.” From the beginning, looCcaM has been a project solely focused on artistic standards and exploration rather than flash-in-the-pan attention-seeking.
Instead of rushing to pursue commercial success, the project has simmered for many years, allowing time and space for the experiment to fully develop into its mature form. The COVID-19 pandemic afforded the brothers the opportunity to completely scrap the project, re-imagine it, and start it over, having learned from previous mistakes. “At first, I wanted to incorporate more of an electronic element. The first demos were more in dance BPMs and a kind of low-fi punk rock/dubstep style with a lot of distortion on the vocals. Taking a step back made us both realize that the record needed to hark back to gritty NY rap vibes, then incorporate the experimentation in that general style. That’s essentially the form we’re working in, both as aesthetic choice and as our de facto reality, being born and raised in the City of Buffalo. It’s our terroir. It’s in our blood. We grew up on Main St., riding the train in the middle of post-industrial fall-out. Grimy NY rap is etched in our soul.” While pushing aesthetic experimentation to the extreme, looCcaM equally pays homage to the legacy of hardcore NY rap style, parallel to the cutting-edge sound of Buffalo’s Griselda Records crew.
The full-length silence exile cunning is planned for release in April 2023. The 13-track album clocks in at 54:10. The single “Romero” will be released mid-December 2022.
######