Chrissy Murderbot Women’s Studies
It’s really hard to know how to begin to describe Chrissy Murderbot, or his third […]
It’s really hard to know how to begin to describe Chrissy Murderbot, or his third album, Women’s Studies. The Chicago-based artist is a virtual walking encyclopedia of the last 30 years of dance music, but this album is about choice quotes rather than sample overload. On “Under Dress,” housey horn stabs from 1986 are paired with slack-talk princess Warrior Queen. “Pelvic Floor” features piano-house chords from 1992 with dancehall MC Rubi Dan riding a fierce flow over top. The music shouldn’t make sense, but it totally does.
The running theme throughout all of Murderbot’s music is the concept of sleaze. And dance music, especially dance music from Chicago, can be particularly good at embodying sleaze. It’s awful. It’s illicit. It’s titillating and exciting. It’s lurid, it’s fun, it’s omnipresent across all cultures, and yet no one wants to talk about it. This is the vibe that holds Women’s Studies together, whether it’s the opening crooned refrain of “Hey girl, when you gonna let a pimp break you off?”, the crazy jacking beats of “Bump Uglies,” or just the plain fact that there’s a song here called “Heavy Butt.” And yes, as others will remark, most of the beats are juke and footwork, albeit composed in a manner that’s wildly innovative, energetic, and very weird. Ignore the sleazy fun of Women’s Studies at your own risk; in the end it’s your own ass that will be missing out.