Artist: Spider to the Fly

Artist: Spider to the Fly

Link: https://www.facebook.com/SpiderToTheFly

“The Spider and the Fly” is a centuries-old poem that has the titular arachnid trying to tempt a fly back to its lair with the promise of a pad that is visually pleasing and contains “many curious things.” So why did the spider lie to the fly? 'Cause the truth just wouldn't have worked: Come back to my place, I'll have my way with you, and you'll be worse for the wear.

Spider to the Fly is the duo of Jack Collier and Sid Blastfemmy, who pitch-shift and collaborate their way into musical anarchy. With the instrumental involvement of ROMANCE (the “A” is a delta symbol), Spider's jazzy electronica recalls Q-Tip/Tribe Called Quest on “Mad Girl's Love Song,” and the Cataracs/DEV's “Bass Down Low” on “Boys Cry.” “Boys Cry” begs the question: Can Jack and Sid be called a duo when they continuously create out of whole cloth multiple persona like Nicki Raw? Not since Kelis' "Milkshake" have we had a fem-figure whose refrain (“I make the boys cry”) brings all the boys to the yard. Among other things, Nicki and her crew prefer “sticky, icky treats from scummy nocturnal freaks” and are quick to remind: “You ain't gonna find this, take a phone pic, this is new shit / I'm fucking Nicki Raw with a chain saw.”

On “Mad Girl's Love Song,” a vocal effect set to devil [not unlike Tyler the Creator's Goblin] introduces what throughout the song serves as a welcome rhythmic hook: “Demon in the dark, demon in the bed, I think I made you up inside my head.” This is joined by an upper-register rap [reminiscent of Eazy-E] that is suitably provocative in mixing the high (“All the little boys on the playground stand out / But I'm the one that you picked out”) with the low ("Eat my heart out, get me fucking hard now / ... Bloody when we make out"). The fascinating sounds of 2:49 are only the preface to the memorable closing lines, e.g. “Six, six, six / I like his dick / Gonna take me to the coffin with his trick.”

It wouldn't be off-base to suggest that Spider to the Fly's "Spit" expounds on the art of self-pleasure: "we drop it like we're screwing," "I'm a self-inflicting whore," "with this hand I masturbate," "preacher says I'll go to hell," "spit works fine," "right hand sticky," "I'm playin'," "watch me go," "don't preach to me I'm big girl," and "I've got my big girl appetite."

Indeed, the narrators and characters are as tantalizingly aggressive as the music itself. It's not Fly to the Spider. It's Spider to the Fly. And that makes all the difference.

*** The author of this review, Sean Hamilton, plays the okedo-daiko for the following band: http://youtu.be/tMS73-1kCr8