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Beginning at 9 p.m. tonight, May 9, Red Door Brewing (509 Central Ave. NW) is hosting a horror-themed event. But it’s not a comic convention, film screening or heavy metal show. Despite the familiar tropes that might come to mind when you see the knife-weilding skeleton on the flyer’s promotional art, tonight’s outing is a hip-hop variety show with a spine-chilling twist. When the sun goes down this evening, partygoers in Downtown Albuquerque might hear mean beats and sinister verses filling the dark alleyways, but the hip-hop and rap adjacent artists at one of Burque’s favorite watering holes are brewing up more than just clever flows and danceable grooves.
Musician Israel Blakwulf says he’s been throwing shows in town for a very long time. While the event is officially organized by local recording artist CS Rucker, Blakwulf says he was given creative control of Red Door’s outside patio, so he and some “local legends” will transform the area into something reminiscent of the movie Beetlejuice. Blackwulf, who will be performing live, labels his music trip-hop because of the nature of his beats and the rhythms he produces. He likens his performance to a jazz improvisation and says depending on the production, his lyrics will change.
“It’s psychedelic,” he says. “It’s exponentially existential blurbs, a juxtapose of emotions and thoughts put together like a collage to induce feeling and visions, because that’s what happens to me when I listen to music.”
The monster mash-up offers spectators more than an audio experience full of trippy rhythms and batty lyrical content. Albuquerque-based illustrator Art.By.Felipe will have some original horror-themed creations on display during the concert. Blakwulf isn’t making any promises, but he teases a live art demonstration from Felipe during the musical performance.
Some of the local legends that multi-genre recording artist CS Rucker and Blakwulf invited to the party include old-school-style hip-hop artist Kron Jeremy from Albuquerque and underground MC O.G. Willikers from Santa Fe. Blakwulf says the show is stacked with musicians who are hard to pin down with rigid genre classifications such as DJ Professor who specializes in mixing punk rock and metal, local rapper A/Void and dark electronic/industrial project Mala in Se.
Blakwulf calls DJ Ickymac a “juggling master,” but he’s not referring to tossing objects into the air and catching them. “Beat juggling” is a turntable technique in which a DJ loops or manipulates a section of a record to create a new beat or groove.
Blakwulf says there’s a lot of darkness in Albuquerque, and if we don’t express it through art, there’s gonna be a lot more of it.
“Sometimes it’s how we cope,” he says. “It’s my medicine, and if I don’t take my medicine, I realize I will freaking blow up. I’ll freaking implode. I’ll short circuit, you know? I can’t function in a town that’s so crazy without some sort of expression. There’s a lot of darkness, light and humor, and I try to hit all those bases — that gambit where you have a little bit of all those emotions — and I feel like [tonight’s] lineup is mimicking that.”
You can visit Blakwulf on bandcamp and buy his music or download it for free. If you like what you hear, check out his alter-ego Summon as well.
Horror at Red Door
May 9, 9 p.m.
Red Door Brewing
509 Central Ave. NW
Free