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BEAT
{BY ALEX GORDON}
In a popular sketch from his eponymous TV show in 2004, Dave Chappelle spends a night on the town with Wayne Brady, the affable and famously inoffensive actor, singer and comedian. In the sketch, though, Brady shows a different side. He’s a pimp. There’s a drive-by. He bullies and manipulates Chappelle and eats his cheese sandwich. At one point, they talk about life as black actors in Hollywood and the need to stick together in an industry that stacks the odds against them. That sketch served as the inspiration for Black Actors, the latest EP from Pittsburgh-based producer and rapper, NVSV (pronounced “Nasa”). The four tracks take aim at the music industry in Pittsburgh and beyond; the regional camaraderie (sincere or not) between artists in a given genre; the discrepancies between public and private personas; and the roles that bravado and vulnerability play in hip hop. But that’s below-the-surface stuff. NVSV’s songs don’t pronounce their intentions too clearly. At face value, his lyrics tread familiar territory like blunts and swagger, but repeat listens reveal a more complex, ironic character. There’s a dissonance to both his lyrics and his production that gives the music a peculiar, provocative edge. That dichotomy can be chalked up to NVSV’s production style, which is, for a lack of a more descriptive term, dark. It’s not dark in the way of the threatening self-confidence of gangster rap — it’s closer to something like discomfort. If that description is unclear, listen to “Drinks on Me,” from NVSV’s 2017 full-length Mystic. It has an amelodic minimalist beat, built on warbling de-tuned industrial drums, which NVSV counteracts with a chilledout, steady-handed flow. Mystic, which was released earlier this year by Library Collaborative, is full of clever contradictions like the ones in “Drinks on Me.” It’s a loose but tangibly themed record that serves as a good introduction to NVSV’s curious talents and unique voice. There’s no lack of material to follow up with: He writes about eight beats a day. Though two releases deep into 2017, he’s already planning a project for “no later than November.” ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
Mystic is available on Apple Music and Spotify. Black Actors is available on Soundcloud. NEWS
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NVSV {PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIELLE MEDIATE}
SPACE RACE
WHAT IS IT IT? {CP PHOTO BY KRISTA JOHNSON}
{BY MEG FAIR}
IT IT: Tyler, Eric, JF and Patrick
I
T IT IS the kind of band that lives in online obscurity. The band’s Facebook page features just one photo of the musicians. If you want to find its music online, it’s necessary to use quotes around the name; otherwise it’s impossible to locate in the depths of the internet. Although the name is not terribly SEO-friendly, the band’s sound has turned heads both locally and elsewhere. When City Paper recently spoke with members of Baltimore-based Wildhoney about Pittsburgh’s music scene, IT IT was one of the bands that guitarist Joe Trainor raved about. On a cloudy, slightly chilly late-spring afternoon, CP caught up with IT IT at Allegheny Cemetery. We set up shop on the steps of a mausoleum with sphinx statues on each side of its stairs. The cemetery is pretty quiet, save for the occasional medical helicopter flying overhead or the whisper of the wind. At one point, we stop talking to make eye contact with a doe about 30 feet away, as if it’s a totally normal thing to do. The four band members seem comfortable, as if this particular
mausoleum is a usual haunt. Since its inception in 2015, IT IT has been a band that builds experimental pop music driven by found sound and samples with just a pinch of rock. The four-piece, composed of JF, Tyler, Eric and Patrick (these are first-name only artists), lives and creates music together in Garfield. They practice in the basement, fleshing out songs as a democratic unit in the comfort of their own home.
IT IT
WITH THOUSANDZZ OF BEEZZ, THE MOON BABY, SPEDNAR 9 p.m. Sat., June 17. Cattivo, 146 44th St., Lawrenceville. $5. 412-687-2157 or www.cattivopgh.com
“Since Tyler moved to Pittsburgh and has started writing with us, I feel like the process is truly democratically collaborative,” says Eric, “None of us know what the song is going to be when we get in the room together.” The band’s forthcoming album, Formal
Odors, has a sound that’s hard to connect to pre-existing art. One could try to grasp at tangential influences, but it would bear little fruit for explaining the band’s sound to others. The band collectively admires groups like The Books and Deerhoof, and Tyler is inspired by Women’s guitar work, but IT IT sounds like none of those bands. “JF’s parts usually start the collaborative process,” says Patrick. “He has a collection of sounds that we usually build on with the live instrumentation.” “He’s always collecting sound and samples regardless, so he has all these pre-structured found-sound samples that we’re excited about,” Eric says. “Then we get into a room with them and add the live instruments, and it grows exponentially from there.” Used carefully, as if from a treasure chest of random percussive instruments, JF’s samples light a spark throughout IT IT’s compositions that keeps listeners on their toes. Woven around the catchy samples is the kind of percussion work that commands your limbs and strong, CONTINUES ON PG. 18
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