Martyr Loser King

by Saul Williams

Overview

Coming off his 2011 release Volcanic Sunlight -- reportedly his "pop" record, but more a conceptual art move than a possible chart-climber -- poet, rapper, writer, artist, and activist Saul Williams returned with Martyr Loser King, an album that matches his last provocatively titled effort, 2007's The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust. Here, the versatile, former She Wants Revenge member Justin Warfield replaces Tardust's producer Trent Reznor as the man who rips pop and rap music into fascinating, compressed shreds, but both Volcanic Sunlight and Williams' work on the 2Pac jukebox musical Holler If Ya Hear Me seem to influence the funky choruses and connectable bits of the album. The hooky "Ashes" gets stuck in the head like a Kid Cudi cut, although the Lonely Stoner isn't like to write something as striking as "Protect and serve/Your bullets won't deliver the last word." "The calculated masses are appealing/The jury hung from every museum ceiling" is the skillful way Williams suggests history has always favored the elite, and many of these declarations are delivered through the concept album's main character, a hacker from Burundi who aims to rip the system like Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning. "Burundi" and "The Noise Came from Here" tell this character's back-story best, while "All Coltrane Solos at Once" is the brilliant way the Martyr Loser Hero of the album comes into enlightenment with some slave-trade metaphors worked into the story ("My identity was encrusted with the myth of having been chosen" or maybe "We were crowded in the shit pit of a floating toilet, dreaming of an afterlife"). There's beauty in the record too, and as the character goes clubbing he falls for a woman so beautiful "she was wearing red and purple light," but till things get brighter, Williams remains the data-age Gil Scott-Heron plus a collaborator who elevates, as Reznor, and now Warfield, have both upped their game in the presence of such a radiant creative force. ~ David Jeffries

Product Details

Release Date:	01/29/2016
Label:	Fader Label
UPC:	0829299097610
Rank:	54647

Tracks

1. Groundwork
2. Horn of the Clock-Bike
3. Ashes
4. Think Like They Book Say
5. The Bear/Coltan as Cotton
6. Burundi
7. The Noise Came From Here
8. Down for Some Ignorance
9. Roach Eggs
10. All Coltrane Solos At Once
11. No Different
12. Homes/Drones/Poems/Drums

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Saul Williams   Primary Artist
Justin Warfield   Guitar,Percussion,Vocals (Background)
Dragons of Zynth   Bass,Guitar,Percussion
Emily Kokal   Featured Artist
CX Kidtronik   Bass,Guitar,Percussion,Vocals (Background)
Saturn Renge   Guitar
Haleek Maul   Featured Artist

Technical Credits

Saul Williams   Composer,Producer
Justin Warfield   Engineer,Producer,Programming
Renaud Letang   Programming
Michael Patterson   Mixing
Dragons of Zynth   Programming
Paul Logus   Mastering
CX Kidtronik   Programming
Jon Cohen   Executive Producer
Sol Guy   Executive Producer
Robert English   A&R
Geordie Wood   Photography
Dave Guenette   Executive Producer
Anisia Uzeyman   Design,Art Direction
David Rosenfeld   A&R