As we track artists as they dip into and out of the electronic scene, DJ Muggs' next move has us intrigued. He's connected with Andrew Kline of hardcore band Strife, Brevi (most notable for her contribution on 50 Cent's "Be My Bitch"), and Sean Bonner, who is described as a "mastermind curator / hacker."
And because Sean Bonner wasn't a familiar name, I reached out to see how he got involved. And this guy has a viewpoint for this music that's beyond what we normally see or expect. His explanation is that "…it would be more of a multimedia project than a band." He continues to say "Someone who sees a review right now, or grabs the songs might think it's a band with some other stuff going on… but someone who finds it in an art gallery will think it's an art collective that happens to use a lot of music."
This collective called themselves "CROSS MY HEART HOPE TO DIE," and has Brevi singing over Muggs production, a throwback to the mid-'90s trip-hop style that every 30-something can relate to their own angst-fueled childhood. Beyond simply releasing audio, this collective is looking to manipulate the way that people find music. Their inconspicuous art installations and street music boxes have been hidden in such cities as Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Rome, Belfast, Prague, and Vienna in the past year. Bonner says "some people will find it on the street, from the installations, and never know it's anything more than just that one thing they found."
Producers that fall into formulas made music stagnant. Muggs has been pushing boundaries with his releases for years. His splash into trap music last year was seamless, and this move is nothing like we expected. This could have been packaged completely differently. But it wasn't. It seems as if everyone in this group said "let's see if they care". This project and it's promotional material were designed to make us think a bit deeper. And we applaud this collective for doing something completely different. Bonner says "This isn't just a record, it's a piece of a soundtrack of a larger art project". Right now there's a sick four-track EP available for $4 on iTunes. We're incredibly curious to see what this group will do to follow this record up.
