Death Grips and Microsoft Songsmith is a combination no one wanted, but everyone needs.
If you’re not familiar with the public stain that is Microsoft Songsmith allow us to shed some light. It’s a computer program designed to create and match a musical accompaniment to prerecorded vocals. What real purpose the company thought this might serve is a little unclear and if you watch its infomercial (which has attained bad TV immortality by now) you’ll be left with more questions, few answers and a jingle about glow-in-the-dark towels stuck in your head.
These days, Songsmith’s relentlessly cheery melodies are usually only used to ruin popular songs with mildly amusing results. That changed this week, when a user on Death Grips’ Reddit page gave us, not only Songsmith’s finest moment, but what now feels like the program’s entire purpose for existing. You know where this is going.
Someone has taken MC Ride’s rabid vocals and fed them into Microsoft’s unholy machine. The result is ElevatorGrips, a release that swaps all of Flatlander’s fallout-ridden synth-production and Zach Hill’s volcanic drum patterns for excessively cheery melodies too syrupy for a children’s show.
For all we know this is Death Grips. Honestly, they’ve done weirder stuff — like announcing their upcoming album Bottomless Pit with a video of Karen Black released two years after her death. Either way listen to Elevator Grips below. It will put a smile on your face.