Re: Pacific States - WV108 ☂ Sadistik - Saints
Sadistik is an alternative hip hop artist. I stumbled across his music about three years ago during a time when I was heavily into the Minneapolis hip hop collective Doomtree. I was on the constant lookout to find other artists from the genre I could feel a connection with in as deep a way. Little did I know when I came across Sadistik through his song
Orange that this man would become one of my favourite artists ever.
Sadistik's work is dark and haunting. What's vulnerable is often delivered with a brutal sense of honesty. Feelings that most would keep locked away for perhaps fear of judgement are displayed in his music as open wounds. Playing with words in a way that is so poetic and yet raw, I've become fixated on studying his lyrics. The way he writes blows my mind.
Saints produced by Foxwedding is the penultimate track on Sadistik's new album,
Haunted Gardens. I remember when this came out. I was overwhelmed and couldn't listen to anything else for what felt like days. His entire body of work is gorgeous but there's something about this track that's not of this planet. The way that second chorus washes over you. The dissonance. The soaring violins. Regular collaborator Lotte Kestner's achingly beautiful backing vocals. I find the whole thing absolutely exquisite, with its only
sin being that it ends around the three minute mark (more, I want more).
There's a quote from Sadistik where he describes the album:
"Haunted Gardens is a reflection of my most vulnerable moments; it’s about feeling isolated in a changing world, depression, and finding beauty amidst the chaos." The one line in particular "finding beauty amidst the chaos" paints perfectly my connection with music, and why I love it so much. Those kinds of songs carrying a certain honest
something that have fed me up well throughout the years. Finding beauty in dark corners and from difficult situations.
Saints is one of the ultimate examples of such a song. The whole album I think is the best he's ever released. If you're interested in this side of hip hop then please check it out. I'll be shocked if a record gets released this year that I love more than I do
Haunted Gardens. I'm crazy in love with it. Obligatory
gosh from me to end this post, cause gosh.. this man's music.
None of us are saints, but some of us ain’t
You love the paint but the colors will change
Staring out the window again
A hundred rain drops still sit on my skin
A message in a bottle
Lessons that I etched as a staccato
I go Hatori Hanzo with the gonzo
Until I fill the hollows
Bones dipped in gold go vibrato
Falsettos cause an echo but for how long?
Heavy as I’ve ever been
Heaven’s just a death away
Boulder-shouldered seraphim
Broke everything that’s delicate
Looking at yourself again
Yet you never self reflect
Orpheus & Eurydice
Like you’ve been to Hell and back
Innocent to diffident
Indifferent to the dissonance
Drifting in and out of indolence
Indecent and still in descent
Disparate makes desperate
I’m distant when I ponder on the infinite
Walk along the precipice
Always on defensive when
Autonom reflixiveness
Albatross’ eloquent
Watch me while I levitate
Crawling on the Zeppelins
Monologues are deafening
Do anything to exit
When I’m lost among the desolate
None of us are saints, but some of us ain’t
You love the paint but the colors will change
Staring out the window again
A hundred rain drops still sit on my skin
Stalagmites inside my mouth
Ultraviolet fire-bound
Take the grey I find
And maybe I can make it light up now
Lately I admire how
You make things seem lively
When I’m dying out
Words are like a spiderweb I’m spiral bound
My la fleur planting haunted gardens
Where the scars are formed
Pluck my heart like harpsichords
Til one of ours will wash ashore
Baited breath til sharks’ll swarm
Bay of pigs we’re art of war
Bayonets I’m marching toward
Lately I’ve been Lobster Boy
I’m running out of air to breathe, be
Coming what I’m scared to see, leave
Nothing to the parakeets, these
Summers that appeared to be, dreams
Prisoners of the moment
Living among the stoic
Prisms of other omens
Visions becoming real
Sometimes it’s just too surreal
So tell me how do you feel?
Are all the walls closing in?
When only the blue prevails
Stuck in a blooper reel
Where nothing is beautiful
A heart like beluga whale
Awaits for the wounds to heal