PARTY GATOR PURGATORY

Stateside, James Acaster is not a household name. However, the British comedian, best known for his ambitious stand-up special, Repertoire – consisting of four interconnected yet distinct hours of comedy that have as much in common with experimental autofiction as they do a John Mulaney special – and his appearances on British panel shows like Taskmaster, Pointless, Would I Lie to You?, and Celebrity British Bake Off, on which his disastrous performance led to the creation of one of our finest frustrated reaction memes, has established himself as one of England’s finest alt comedians. This piece is not about any of that. This is about his new album, PARTY GATOR PURGATORY.

Instead of resting on the laurels received for his widely acclaimed standup special Cold Lasagna Hate Myself 1999 and the sold out Hecklers Welcome tour, Acaster decided to make the bold choice of putting comedy aside and starting a serious musical act called Temps. Conceived during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Temps is an experimental Hip Hop collective overseen by Acaster and featuring heavy contributions from abstract hip hop heavyweights such as Quelle Chris, Xenia Rubinos, Open Mike Eagle and NNAMDI and their insane debut is an album like no other. It defies every convention normally heard on hip hop records, shifting in and out of drastically different styles on a dime. The opener “lookaliveandplaydead” is a slow methodical song grounded by a pulsing synth bass line followed up immediately by the heavy “kept”, a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Mr Bungle record. References to the work of MF DOOM and his contemporaries put the record in conversation with the history of the genre, while letting us wonder what is yet to come. The album is formless, adventurous, and abstract like a screaming Pollock painting, yet it carries itself with a lightness and excitement that begs to be engaged with. Acaster has created one of the most boundary pushing and futuristic records of the decade so far, and it is very much worth your time.