Brodie Bones
Cephas Munga, oka Blac Hollywood has been involved in a whirlwind of activity over the years. After a stint in New York, making music under the moniker of Ghozt Pit, surviving under various hazardous conditions & a host of adversity; Cephas returned to Vancouver and launched the latest labor of love known as Brodie Bones with the full-length Cody. An artist that has made a career of reinventions, forever remaking & remodeling his own creative persona and his new Chill Rose Place production outfit; Cephas Munga as Brodie Bones makes an attempt at his most commercial effort ever, only to further discover his own idiosyncratic freak flag frequencies that illustrate his most realized work to date that indicates a variety of anticipated aesthetics soon to follow from the prolific artist.
Cody starts off with a sample of the silly I’m crying because I love Justin Bieber meme that opens up “Humming Bird Crash”, that exhibits the quintessential Cephas sound where visceral expression is heard in a collision of feeling & observations. Every item recalled by Brodie Bones becomes a charged romantic item, offering up a drink from “My Usher Cup” where the the rhythms rock & the blues are brought in auto-tuned touches of intimate insinuations that dips into an addictive ensemble of snares & illustrious electro-adornments. The collaborative aspect of Cephas’s style, along with his rising Chill Rose Place production brand are illustrated in full form on “The Warrior” that also offers up versus from Bhura & Hubbo that wax poetic about self-absorbed indulgences.
Expressions of missed connections are illustrated with frustration illustrated within the keyboard christened arrangement on “I should of just talked to her”, that then pauses the action with the impassioned “Sophisticated redneck interlude” that features Hubbo’s heart singing straight off the sleeve as “Fragile hearts” follows this sentiment forward with vulnerable illustrations that finds Munga breaking new illustrious production territories of intricacy that we haven’t heard before. And while Brodie Bones is all about honest exhibitions of feelings & views into the concept of self; that late night boisterous vibe keeps on moving with “Whips like Angelina” featuring contributions from Hubbo & 4KRAWW that keeps the mood turnt up & rowdy. Matters get smoked-up on the woozy “The weeding song” featuring vocals from Hubbo, as “Take off” takes off with a home-brewed flair that sounds like a joint that was cooked up in a trap kitchen. “Blue Moon” keeps that evening evening evocative, enticing & soaring on a sensuous vibe that ties the album up neatly with “The rule book to being a perfect date” that illustrates & emphasizes the importance of being a dapper individual in order to be the perfect suitor to the one that means the most to you.
Also produced by Brodie Bones, aka Cephas Munga; checkout his production work on Lifeguard’s Color Stream released last month via Chill Rose Place. The opening number “Tuned Into You” focuses on the parallels between television & rules of attraction, where those synths keep humming on “NoGoodbye”, to the late night restlessness & sleepless “Bad Nights”, that swims straight into the ethereal under-realms of “Sickboi”. The upper echelons are shattered on “Break the Ceiling”, toward the highest heights of “Token Bad Boy”, that draws to a close on the curtain dropping “Liquid Cinnamon” that makes for one of the year’s most curious & fascinating releases. Read our following interview with Brodie Bones featured after the following jump.
Tell us about what sorts of approaches you had in mind when creating the Cody album.
My reflections on making the album: spent all of it bedroom producing. My plan was to make something commercially viable.
Give us some further insights on the process….tell me how you set out to make something commercially viable.
I felt that my prior projects felt slightly too busy. I had been studying the mainstream marketplace. I wanted to know the connection between minimal music and why the mass gravitated to it. I had been working on this album for a bout a year trying to make a good pop album. It wasn’t till near the end of production that I started creating minimal trap sounding beats. I quickly learned no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t replicate exactly what the mainstream had. It would always sound weird and my own wave. i guess making this album taught me to not give up on my sound. After the release of my project I started connecting with a few different artists off Soundcloud. So I guess it all worked out.
With other artists that you have connected to—how has their work helped to further inspire your own waves of constructive perception & subsequent creativity?
They’ve given me a support system for my music. I don’t have to feel like I have to carry a whole song by myself anymore or use all the beats I make. I now have people I can pass things too and share ideas with its really awesome.
What have you been really excited about lately & locally art wise?
I’ve been excited about Chill Rose Place. We progressing at a solid pace. I’m stoked for everyone’s projects. I love just being able to produce for people.
Any tips & insights about how to make & enact changes for the better here in 2017?
All you can do is keep making music. 2017 is the year we collect money off our music. Even if it’s pennies.
Listen to more from Brodie Bones via Soundcloud & his production work via Chill Rose Place.
