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Cancel The Guillotine

by Seez Mics

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1.
et al. 03:46
1. et al. We binge through - what we’ve been thru Then we purge any urge to dwell And hopefully it helps to buy like it hurts to sell The search for self: a solo performance Opening to rave reviews until the curtains fell Now the audience is earth bound Polarized, then reversed by the history we only learn To learn how to claim to know how this turns out But it turns out We’re just building new lives from the ashes of the ones we just burned down And guess what… it’s just your turn now Simian impulse to violence- why’s it the wisest Are seen as the weakest, who needs their silence? Who benefits from the repetitive sedative of propaganda and the mileage of a mindless virus I speak not of COVID 19 or Miley Cyrus I speak of course of the perspective from power They don’t see you as a friend They don’t see you as a foe They don’t see you at all et al. They don’t see you as a lover They don’t see you as a hater They don’t see you at all et al. So you see They don’t see you, so You are not a right, you are not a wrong Quite simply, unless you are seen You simply are not Widgets fidget digits- zeroes and ones Cowards and heroes succumb to mysterious hum Appearing to come from ulterior drums And some lump sum numb from - over exposure Let go and hold your composure The underbite looking over your shoulder’s Screaming “Get over it, soldier!” We only get older - associate sober - the ultimate poster Child for “at least I’m not them” So amen, yes a-gain… again and again Been waiting to start for so long, wonder if it ever will end You have no message to send unless it offends So let’s just pretend reality is a sight for sore eyes Most importantly - your eyes Where beauty is beholden to an intangibly ephemeral golden age That has never, does not, and will not exist This is not a commercial
2.
I don’t look ahead - cause I don’t look the part The past is no place to put your heart The books’re smart, the streets’re smarter Wonder why either would teach ya to be a martyr Carve a - name into armour, arm a charmer With karma to harm a flight risk Don’t blink or you might miss - not overt as a sliced wrist More like pairs of loose lips and tight fists - Loose as a noose - tight as a vice grip (Welcome to) the beginning of the enzyme Vacant stares at stairs leading to a for rent sign Space taken for granted like bottled water at bedtime Skip to the head of the breadline wreaking of red wine 10, 9, 8 the gears grind like clockwork Alarm goes off and your virtue is not worth The yard sign it was signaled on Now the mob’s on your lawn with pistols drawn, so sing along When did the commercials go so commercial The death toll expo, a heads roll reversal It hurts so we seek out elixirs to fix us The trick is the truth is a nuisance and flickers In shadows and sun light we see through the hood As a solemn reflection of the people we could Be… If it wasn’t for the guillotine Cancel the guillotine Your beliefs don’t believe what you believe em to mean With an emphasis on Sisyphus, they killed the king of the hill Over petty differences - simplistic image of privilege is synchronous with innocence until proven guilty by association (Kill the vibe) vilified so they won’t debate him They tried to object in the court of public opinion But this sort of peasantry is unbecoming the kingdom Immutable characteristics become heuristics For the opportunistic - it’s film or be filmed Now the nuance is little more than a proxy war Ignore the blood - lock the door so we can mop the floor The stocks’ll soar, the crowds’ll roar Inflating a rotten core but we’ll still want more Sure, the city slicker is a shitty tipper Who differs only to beg for an arm and a leg to stay ahead of the grifter Crypto klepto kept no coin that couldn’t be leveraged As a threat if they couldn’t settle on severance
3.
Money… who needs it, amiright? Money is not real Unlike loved ones and a hot meal I say this as a man doing all that I can To keep my family fed Pardon the paradox, I hope you understand what I meant When I said the revolution will not be live streamed The swiped screen is just another victimless crime scene While the power changes hands in a Byzantine pipe dream Legislators and agitators are reshooting the fight scenes Pushed to the brink of pulling a weapon out Cause a lack of leadership ensures followers never count Some reach into their pockets for the fresh amounts The rest are living check to checking out- so check it out Don’t spend more than you make Do make more than you spend You’ll be excited by stability When they grow bored of the trend The horde will descend, however Your ascent is not prophesized Mobility is priceless Especially when your movement is now monetized I’ll subscribe to any theory provided there’s no pay wall Or lottery lobotomy propping me on an eight ball Or robbery of property by case law and chain saw Selling to be sold is civilization’s trade off Listen all a ya’ll, it’s self-sabotage We built an insane asylum where the padded walls Are made from dominoes of debt and the last to fall Will be the first to collapse it all We’re all little banks When big bank Has a Big Bang
4.
The solipsistic human Left all of this in ruins I’m older than I look - I’m younger than I act I even once wrote a book about covering my tracks But I could never just relax, so I never wrote it down So it’s somewhere in my head where I watch it float around I take no pride in my process, the ultimate “is what it is” Since man first took what wasn’t his, I’ve been hunting with The intent of gathering for distribution A little problem, a big solution, less intuition, more institution Introducing the solipsistic human Left all of this in ruins I gotta tell you- those politicians knew what they were doing, recruiting the solipsistic human Known to exist solely on a feedback loop of Extremely unlikely and somewhat satisfied Finding the courage to tell you he’s courageous in the face of unrelenting cowardice While ignoring the mirror’s insistence that the face Is his own I’m the type of dipshit To use words like solipsistic My worldview is so holistic Unless I need to be optimistic Pessimistic, half full of myself But I’ll readily drink your cup of tea Everyone will just agree (with me) if you leave it up to me The fucks are free But I charge for the blanket and pills While you sit in a cage made of minimum wage As the pendulum sways and I’m getting a raise To be a cog in the wheel that is crushing you See, the time and the place for opining on race Is when I’m in a space for defining what’s safe So when I get a taste of the violence you face I escape through policy that abandons you Climate change my mind - climate keep the change I think outside the box, but no thoughts outside Tiananmen Square Stare - drifting through my ipad Where my amygdala gets hijacked Til I take on personas so do me the honor Of applying my performative eye black Limiting opportunity - to guarantee an outcome Karl Friedman, Milton Marx alchemizing Until one intolerant and intolerable jackass is given the press room Eagerly selling fear as a precursor to… protection
5.
Seeking out a challenge for the thrill, the kill The credit - it’s not worth it, I get it But I let it get to me and I wanna fix your facelift (face it, you’re faceless) Conservatives’ll shapeshift, liberals’ll race grift A stasis of plaintiffs content to watch the paint drip No longer satisfied with the product or its placement Makeshift patriarch- the dad shop is out of stock For all our mommy issues, we’re all ticks without a tock Can’t be out of time if you die around the clock Can’t be out of line if the line’s around the block In the blink of an eye, the link will be live It’ll sync to your mind as you wink your disguise You may think you decide, but when you think of divide Do you think of your side… (or the other side?) There are no sides to a circle, yet we have an Earthfull Of tribes who collide when supplied with a virtue To signal, the symbol of simian circuitry No longer serving its role in survival The truth will set you on fire, the lie will set you to sleep So when you see everything burning returning the promises They couldn’t keep To the lenders who send us a bill for belief In the building of bridges, the business of Sheltering trolls underneath an emotional speech Given while swimming in guilt then spilled In the tide now brimming with regrets we inherit Where we hide our misgivings in the dead that we’ve buried And reside in the prison of the debt that we carry Til we lie for a living like a press secretary It’s a what, it’s a what- it’s a newscycle scam And it gets its ideas from the truth when it can When it can’t, it’s a fig leaf cut from whole cloth At no cost to the audience it blows off Rolls off the tongue to rise from the grave The election was stolen, the laptop was fake The bias to buy us is harmless without it They’re all lying to you Some are just honest about it Pride will kill more heroes than villains Cause villains know pride isn’t real By the time the hero comes to their senses The defense has filed an emotional appeal

about

Strange Famous is proud to present CANCEL THE GUILLOTINE, the new EP from SFR veterans Seez Mics and Aupheus!

The 5-song collection is available to download at StrangeFamous.com and at the SFR Bandcamp.

Limited Edition 7-Inch Records and Cassettes are also available to pre-order at StrangeFamous.com.
CTG Is also available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and wherever you listen to music.

Both Seez and Aupheus have made their mark in the SFR universe over the years, dropping solo projects like Seez’s “Live Long Enough To Learn” and Aupheus’ “Megalith” (both in 2018), as well as appearing on multiple releases from other members of the SFR crew. The pair commenced their cross-oceanic collaboration when they learned that they’d both cemented their longtime association with Strange Famous as members of the inaugural slate of artists signed to the Strange Famous Digital imprint.

Here is their story, and the story of “Cancel The Guillotine,” in their own words:

SEEZ MICS

I couldn’t tell you what Aupheus looks like.
 
Aupheus couldn’t tell you what I smell like.
 
However, after listening to our new album “Cancel The Guillotine,” I think you’ll agree that we sound uncancellable.
 
Aupheus and I joined SFdigi during the initial roster roll-out in September 2016. We began exchanging emails about how excited we were to be on the same label because we were already fans of each other, and we made plans to collaborate on songs for our respective albums.
I remember the time frame very clearly because less than a month later, I was listening to early mixes of our first song “Macro Mirror” during my honeymoon. I kept telling my new bride about the effortless chemistry I had with this producer from London, and how magical an experience it was to instantly connect with someone I hoped to collaborate with in the future. The irony was not lost on my wife. I’m a very romantic person.
 
In 2018, Aupheus and I doubled down on our burgeoning alliance when we repeated the magic with our second song “My Pincode To Everything.” Like “Macro Mirror,” the industrially dystopian beat and specifically abstract rhymes blended seamlessly to form a song that was uniquely hip-hop but also uniquely something… else.
 
Aupheus and I began discussing doing an entire album together in 2019. As life would have it, my free time rapidly declined due to a new baby, which led to a new job, which led to a new worldview, all of which led to a new approach to time management.
 
I’ve always been a deliberate, meticulous writer. I won’t even listen to a new beat unless I’m sure I’ll have enough time to start writing immediately should the mood strike me. This was a fine process when I was single and responsible solely for my own needs and wants, but not so much once there were diapers to change and diaper-related bills to pay. Whenever Aupheus would email me about getting the album started, I’d have to politely kick the proverbial diaper down the road. (Sorry. It was a time full of diapers.)
 
As with most of the world, all of this changed in 2020. I was suddenly home a lot more and able to shuffle off to the basement once the wife and kids were occupied by things other than listening to my political rants or hawt sports takes.
 
So, I emailed Aupheus to say, “Bruh, enough waiting - let’s give the world what it needs right now!” (I think I actually said, “Hey, send me a beat and let’s see where it goes.”) The first beat he sent eventually became “et al.” I wrote and recorded it in one session, which is very unusual for me. I could tell our chemistry had not diminished during our time apart, so we kept working at a rapid pace until BOOM we had the five songs that comprise “Cancel The Guillotine.”
 
It was an honor to work with Aupheus. He is brilliant, diligent, and professional. I look forward to our next project.
  
As for the meaning of “Cancel The Guillotine”
 
I say more than enough on the record itself, so I’ll keep it brief here:
 
we should all
metaphorically and literally
cancel
metaphorical and literal
means
of cancellation


AUPHEUS

Since Seez already properly recounted the genesis of our union and detailed his writing process, I'm going to lean into the technical side of the album - as is fitting for the producer, I suppose.

'Cancel the Guillotine’ is a 5 track collaborative project between me and Seez Mics; Seez on the raps, me on the beats.

The whole project was done remotely through the pandemic, with Seez in the US and me in the UK. Seez recorded all of the vocals at his home studio and sent me the stems. We communicated entirely by email.

I was sending beats over at an early ‘sketch’ stage, rough and basic, from there we’d share ideas back-and-forth to develop them together. I can say for certain that the beats would have sounded different if I’d been working completely solo.

The beat that became the title track “Cancel the Guillotine” was originally slower than the final version, at about 80bpm. Seez suggested speeding it up to 100bpm which at the time I thought was a crazy idea as I’d envisioned it as a slow and brooding joint… but turned out it worked much better at the faster tempo!

There were lots of moments like this while working on the beats for this project; I was the one physically putting them together but in terms of ideas, the production on this record is a collaborative effort.

We initially decided to put together a 4 track project. Seez had the idea of sequencing the tracks in speed order, starting with the slowest track and finishing with the fastest (or vice versa). The first track we recorded was ‘et. al;’ that beat was originally a quick sketch I’d put together on the SP202. It was super slow at 65.5bpm so we decided to use that as the slowest extreme and increase from there.

Aside from the SP202 I also ran various sounds through an Emu EMAX I rack sampler for more old school crunch / beef / magic.

Every track makes use of the turntables in some shape or form; I sampled a load of old records and used Serato to scratch Seez’ vocals. I also used an electric guitar run through a midi pedal and various effects to create sounds. The scratches on the title track I ran through a wah pedal. On the software side, everything is sequenced in Logic with a selection of 3rd party plugins.

The final track “They're All Lying To You, Some Are Just Honest About It” (“TALTY” for short) was the last track we put together. The beat originally was at a constant tempo and had the same spacey vibe throughout, but Seez had the idea to gradually increase the speed - I hadn’t heard anything like that recently (probably since "Alphabet Aerobics" - RIP Gift of Gab). I wasn’t sure quite how that was going to work, but I implemented the speed change and Seez came back with those intense vocal takes building to a climax. Once I heard that, it made sense to rework the music to crescendo around the vocals. That was quite a challenge to see how far I could push the dynamic intensity on that one, building multiple layers of sound without the mix getting too messy and ensuring that the vocals were still punchy and audible. It took a few days of trial and error before I got that working to my satisfaction. Hopefully the beat does the vocals justice. I think “TALTY” and “Cancel the Guillotine” are my two favourites from the record.

As a final note, I’m appreciative of Seez being open to giving and receiving constructive criticism without awkwardness or fear of causing offence, that’s the way I like it. If you’ve had experience working with people in any creative field then you’ll know that’s not always the case, ha. I think we had a great working dynamic in that respect. I’m hoping we’ll be able to work on more music in the near future.

To everyone who takes the time to check out the record - salute! Thanks for listening.

- Aupheus

credits

released November 4, 2022

All vocals by Seez Mics
All music by Aupheus
Mixed & mastered by Aupheus
Artwork by Aupheus

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Seez Mics D.C.

my music
is a mirror
looking back
at you.

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