Abbatia - Red Room
In Exmilitary’s wake, it seemed as if industrial hip hop was on an unstoppable upward trajectory. Subpop snatched clipping for their debut album, CLPPNG, while JPEGMAFIA and Moor Mother quietly prepared their own debuts. Dälek, the always critical but oft-forgotten genre pioneers, returned to release their first album in seven years, Asphalt for Eden. Even Kanye West flirted with a more aggressive sound on Yeezus, an album Pitchfork gave a 9.5.And while West’s politics may have become increasingly regrettable, it hasn’t slowed the prolific growth of the subgenre.
Enter Philadelphia trio Abbatia. After releasing their first single “We Made This Over Pancake Breakfast” in 2018, the group has shifted from their humble, horrorcore-by-the-way-of-Odd Future beginnings to embrace a more experimental sound. The result is their second EP, Red Room. Released in 2022 and mastered by Death Grips’ own Andy Morin, it is a spirited amalgamation of all things punk, industrial, and hip hop.
“Dreadnaught” kicks things off with force as Abbatia barks lyrical acrobatics over a thumping beat. The onslaught continues on “System Failure” with a pitch shifted, percussion heavy beat that would do Dälek’s resident beatmaster Oktopus proud. But while their beats may be the coalescence of warped Wax Trax throwbacks and ‘90s cult classics approached anew, their hooks live in the kind of alt-hip hop that has long dominated college radio.
Channeling Brockhampton’s ear worm hooks via B L A C K I E’s biting cynicism, “Crash!” is the de-facto showstopper for college basements everywhere. Vibrant, bouncy, and thunderous, it shows Abbatia at their most pointed as they spit vitriol begging to be echoed. Whip smart bars such as “Call in/Call out/Contemplate/What’s that about?” are as nonchalantly virulent as they are catchy, and only serve to highlight the simple poignancy of the chorus. The titular “Red Room” closes things out as Abbatia uses death industrial and trip hop as a conduit to slow things to a crawl. More sparse than its counterparts, the track displays the groups’ versatility and a hidden appreciation for Ramleh, even if it is hidden beneath a radio-ready veneer.
Throughout Red Room, Abbatia avoids the trappings of the post-Death Grips wave to elevate themselves above the competition. Irreverent and absurd lyricism is undercut by beguiling hooks and beats that borrow from the zeitgeist as much as the past. With Red Room, Abbatia showcases the next step in their evolution and makes a promising case for an album.
