Los Angeles record label Deathbomb Arc celebrated 17 years of weird and adventurous music this year with the release of their compilation No Children. The label, headed by Brian “Charlemagne” Kinsman, looks toward a future of more exciting releases, starting with a new cassette from Daveed Diggs. Diggs, who fronts experimental rap group clipping., now signed to Sub Pop, and stars in the Broadway production of Hamilton, digitally released his solo LP Small Things To A Giant back in 2012, and now it’s finally available in a physical format. He pays homage to his home back in the California Bay Area with this collection of heartfelt tracks. Songs like “Night Time” contain lyrics so specific and rich that they feel both autobiographical (“So Pops drives a bus for fifteen years, right / It’s at the very least the obvious cause for his tendonitis”) as well as profoundly universal (“And it’s a shame to waste so much of myself on the game / With no clear or empirical reason to play”). With these eleven songs, he paints a rich portrait of his hometown in which listeners can vicariously live.
Small Things to a Giant can be ordered from Deathbomb Arc’s webstore. It’s streaming below.
