HAIL YEEZUS...THANK KANYE WEST FOR SAVING HIP-HOP AND TAKING IT TO ANOTHER LEVEL

LOOKS LIKE MR. WEST IS BACK TO HIS OLD WAYS OF MAKING CLASSICS
FROM THE DAILY NEWS:

Following the motif of the two singles he has released from his upcoming CD “Yeezus” — due out June 18 — West’s performance had the sinister tone and sonic abrasion of classic industrial rock.

To drive it home, West opened with the new single “Black Skinhead,” which mixes stabbing synthesizer riffs with a primal T-Rex beat. It’s a unique melding, marrying the flashy sex of glam-rock with the threatening feel of a band like Nine Inch Nails.

Kanye West spent most of his Governors Ball Music Festival set on a makeshift stage amid the crowd, leaving him surprisingly hard to spot. But instead of rendering him remote, the effect made him seem omnipresent.

Following the lead was West’s second song, “New Slaves,” a critique of African-American materialism, which stripped things down to a beat and a primal scream.

That one-two punch gave a fresh context to what otherwise might have been just a routine greatest hits show.

Instead, West threaded the harsh synthesizer assault through his entire catalog, infusing an older song like “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” with an invigorated sense of outrage.

Ken Goldfield for New York Daily News

Kanye West closes out the three-day Governors Ball Music Festival on Randall's Island, with a gothic synthesizer-filled set providing a striking tease to his next recorded assault.

The tone married well with an already forceful song like “Power.” West’s backing group, manning three banks of synthesizers, gave even harsher inflection to the song’s key sample, which comes from King Crimson’s hellish art-rock touchstone “21st Century Schizoid Man.”

Even softer West songs like “All of the Lights,” “All Falls Down” and “Heartless” benefited from the snarling arrangements.

West didn’t just distort his music. He also obscured himself. He spent most of his set on a makeshift stage amid the crowd, leaving him surprisingly hard to spot. Yet, instead of rendering him remote, the effect made him seem omnipresent.

The power and primitivism of the set came as a particular relief after an afternoon of performances that stressed the genteel and ornate. Bands like Grizzly Bear, Beirut and Yeasayer, for all their talent and invention, lacked West’s directness and punch.

Ironically, it was the event’s hiphop star who ran off with the rock-star mantle. Together, it made for both a fulfilling, day-after-birthday party for the now 36-year-old West, as well as a striking tease to his next recorded assault.

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