Dean: deathtoricky emerges from the underground

Rapper deathtoricky’s biography is as murky as a Louisiana swamp. All I can tell you is that he hails from Celbridge, is observably young – I’d guess late teens or early twenties – and boasts a shock of red hair that calls to mind the glorious bonce of actor Eric Stoltz. Most importantly, deathtoricky has been reliably releasing music online for a couple of years now, forging a highly impressive collection of rap symphonies for all the cast-aside kids to bump on their hoody-covered earbuds.

I will return to deathtoricky momentarily, but first we must acknowledge that he represents an emerging generation of young Irish rap artists who are embracing a unified set of ideals: Grimy aesthetics, edgy soundscapes, songs that are short for a scrolling economy, a general sense of living on the internet. It’s a style that downplays what we might consider core tenets of Irish music and identity – sounds, accents, themes. Instead, it’s the guiding light of prominent artists Lil Peep and Juice Wrld that is most palpable.

You might say these kids are a step behind the zeitgeist – Peep died in 2017 and Juice Wrld two years later. But the style of Soundcloud rap they helped popularise continues to influence modern sounds. For my money, deathtoricky is the best Irish artist yet to follow this sonic path. And with an upcoming live show in Whelan’s on the calendar, he’s also one of the few raising his head above the digital parapet.

The themes often lean on common rap tropes. Cash, of course, is a muse: the song “Wen We Fucken” sees deathtoricky croon, “I’m addicted to the paper” over wavy synth and tapping hi-hats, while “Don Perignon Bottles” – from his excellent EP Ballad of Ricky, released last year (and seemingly only available on Soundcloud, where the artist employs a profile picture of Paulie from The Sopranos) – is an ode to one of rap’s favorite high-priced tipples.

​​Ballad of Ricky regularly engages in such garish spectacle. Over classic West Coast rap production, “Pass Me the Raws” includes tales of deathtoricky speeding away from police cruisers with a blunt in hand and Bonnie-style beauty in the seat next to him that, I assume, are fictional; the melodic “Bruce Banner” includes the lyric, “My glock comes with a hammer switch”. If this all sounds over the top for a kid from Kildare, it works because deathtoricky’s Auto-Tune-laden rap-sung vocal performance is always loose, tuneful and convincing. How he glides over the more soulful beeps of “Popped an X” is a display of cool-hand poise and feel-good charisma.

Now, there’s his new album Spring Cleaning (and it is listed as an album on Spotify, despite taking just 12 minutes to rattle through seven songs). The cover is an image of what has become known as a “tradwife”, supposedly a fashionable concept among the (sizable) conservative wing of Gen Z, clutching a mop, looking bored and unfulfilled. Perhaps deathtoricky feels he has an antidote for what he sees as antiquated ideals.

Spring Cleaning differs from the mischievous charm of Ballad of Ricky. There are grubbier drums, harsher sonics. Both the gritty, distorted electronics of “How I Roll” and diamond-cut synths and deep bassline of “Praying For U” display deathtoricky’s ability to rein in harsh sounds with his vocal dexterity. He’s also increasingly comfortable in leaning into his natural speaking accent, with a local twang every now and then cutting through the clouds. (I should clarify that it’s not like deathtoricky has tried to hide he’s Irish – he does have an older song called “Jus Hit a Lick on O’Connell Street”.)

For all this skill and dexterity, deathtoricky is capable of dropping some duff one-liners: “My shit the bomb like the Israelis” sounds more like immature belligerence than righteous anti-war protest. But the odd foolish piece of writing can’t obscure that the fundamentals are flawless and the execution is gripping. It’s rare for an artist to flaunt this level of skill while making the whole thing sound like a joyride.

Two more emerging rappers

Let’s turn our attention to svhymns and yeire13 – two more emerging rappers of a comparable ethos, but who make deathtoricky feel as easy-going as AM radio rock. Though they don’t appear to be a formal duo, svhymns and yeire13 are frequent collaborators, with a joint body of work that includes the experimental and sonically abrasive album Euroworld, which dropped last year with artwork of an EU flag over a splash of neon and magenta tones.

Their brand of rap is disorientating, drawing from various hard-edged genres including industrial, acid house, and chopped and screwed music. So abrasive are the production values that lyrics can be tough to make out. The most obvious reference point, though, is Lil Peep’s grubby, grungy vocals – the slow drone of “Creepin”, from Euroworld, could have been snatched from an early Peep tape.

At its best, there’s a stoned melodicity to the pair’s music, a sense of unity amid the filthy electronics. The way the bled-dry voices are buried in the mix of “Sedatives” sounds like the inner voice of a drunken club-goer as they stumble through the lights and lasers at 3AM. (As a soothing ointment to all this chaos, svhymns has previously put out an ambient three-track release with the Minneapolis musician Low Key Trampoline, titled Wander.)

Amid a slew of recent singles has been “Sober”, a track underpinned by some jungle music drums and a grimy synth that hangs high in the mix like a dark fog before a more thumping club beat emerges – another display of the broad palette of influences  svhymns and yeire13 are drawing from. Much of this will be too strident for many listeners, but for those who find prettiness in these grim sounds, the pair are the kind of preachers you could build a doomsday cult around.

deathtoricky is set to perform live at Whelan’s on 30 July.