Older siblings are often the reason people dig on certain styles of music. A household ritual and often a familial right of passage, phrases like, “My older brother had a Sex Pistols record” or “I would fall asleep in my brother’s room listening to Black Sabbath on the headphones,” have been stated by friends trying to be cool since the advent of the turntable. Being hipped to Frank Zappa or Frank Black, Ty Segall or Bootsy Collins by an older brother or sister is how many have started down that wonderful pathway of record collection and music geekdom.
For Sam “The Prestidigitator” Redman, it wasn’t punk, funk or prog-rock that was pushed on him by that older brother, but hip-hop. Big brother’s taste and musical influence had such impact that Redman quickly moved from hip-hop listener to hip-hop maker, forming local rap band Diabolical Sound Platoon with his friend Ben “Obi One” Fisher in high school.
Diabolical Sound Platoon will perform tonight at the Animas City Theatre, along with ILL Methods, Sage Cornelius and Def-I. The event will also feature rap battles hosted by DIRTVeNT.
“My brother is seven years older than me, so even when I was a little kid he was like, ‘don’t listen to that, listen to this.’ And he was giving me De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest albums,” Redman said. “I got exposed to some pretty good stuff. Del, Hieroglyphics, Artifacts. It was a lucky break for me as far as getting that early exposure to some of the good stuff.”
if you go
What: Hip-hop with Diabolical Sound Platoon, Def-I, ILL Methods.
When: 8 p.m. today (July 2).
Where: Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive.
Tickets: $18-$20, available online at https://bit.ly/3Aa8mvr.
More information: Call 799-2281 or visit animascitytheatre.com.
Lyrically, hip-hop contains some of the most clever wordsmithing in modern music. And while DSP works complex, heavy and heady funk riffs into their sound, they also do what they can to remain lyrically relevant, clever and socially conscious. It’s a combination that makes them appealing to purveyors of hip-hop in addition to lovers of old-school funk and even indie-rock.
“I think some of the greatest writers of our time, a lot of them play hip-hop music. People like Aesop Rock, it’s almost like a beat-style revolution as far as writing goes; the prose, and how amazing lyrically people can be with it,” Redman said. “Not to say that I don’t appreciate more simplistic lyrics as well, because you can communicate so much soul and beauty and heartbreak and love, but I do really like the complexity of lyrics in a lot of hip-hop.”
For tonight’s show, the duo of Fisher and Redman will be backed by a stripped-down band, featuring James Mirabal on bass and Brett Patterson on keyboards. Past shows have found them backed in the traditional method with only a DJ, or with a full band including horn section. It’s that variety that has made them appealing to the most staunch hip-hop fan to lovers of horn-driven, aggressive funk. At the heart of this band has always been frontmen Fisher and Redman.
“Durango can be a transitory town for a lot of people. People have come through, moved on, gone on to do other projects, and we’ve had times when we had eight or nine members all on stage, entire horn sections, full live backing,” Redman said. “We’ve had violinists, and probably every drummer in Durango has played with us at one point or another. So you know it’s been a bit of a revolving door in that aspect, but me and Ben have stayed true with it and always been into it regardless, because it’s just a pleasure to be able to get out there. It’s a ton of fun.”
DSP dropped their album “Bring the Catastrophe” in 2018 and are currently recording in bass player Mirabal’s studio on the follow-up.
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
