The Black Plague Doctors – “DYNAMITE! (Audio Cinema)”

The Black Plague Doctors just put out an original album that completely ignores the modern obsession with slick production. Recorded largely in a home studio, “DYNAMITE! (Audio Cinema)” is built as an audio short film that follows a classic Hero’s Journey story structure. The Atlanta based duo of Jo-Fi and St. Gabe handled all the writing and performance duties themselves, keeping human mistakes in the final mix to give the project a raw, immediate edge.

The tracks flow together like scenes in a movie, utilizing live guitar, bass, keyboards, and instrumentation processed through a Roland SP 404 sample machine. They anchor everything on a jazz and soul production style that brings a heavy dose of real instruments to the table. Short transitional pieces like the forty nine second opener “One Day You Will” and the brief “Without You” space out longer, more dense songs. There is a striking contrast between the gritty world of “Poor Boy’s Sport” and the sharp social commentary of “Birds Aren’t Real”. The standout track, “Birds Aren’t Real,” packs a dense critique of gun culture, racial tension, and conspiracy theories inside an incredibly catchy beat, and songs like “Wish You Would,” “Where Would I Be?,” and “Allah Mode” show off their deep storytelling, heavily inspired by the classic Southern hip-hop of OutKast and Goodie Mob. By the time you get through “Pirate’s Life”, “True Love”, “The Sweet Science,” and “There is no Me,” you realize how well they handle heavy real life topics. The final run through “Smoke F.E.A.R”, “Dwayne McDuffie,” and “Told You So” rounds out an ambitious piece of work that rejects sterile perfection in favor of pure authenticity.

I absolutely love this release because it favors genuine human character over cheap studio tricks. It is easily one of the most rewarding listening experiences I have had in a long time, and I highly recommend that you go back and check out the prior material from these guys to see how they evolved. You should definitely follow The Black Plague Doctors right now to keep up with what they are cooking up for the rest of this year. They are doing something completely unique in modern music, and you will want to see where their creative journey takes them next.