The Vampire Trilogy Singles Review

JCK (aka Auckland’s James Castady-Kristament) performs alternative hip hop, similar in vein to Wellington’s Tommy Ill, but with more of an electronic/dance feel to it. 

His latest work, following up from 2011’s The Bees, is The Vampire Trilogy, a set of three songs fittingly released simultaneously on Halloween.

The first of the three singles that I listened to was Straightjacket. This has an eighties-style beat to it, and features fast paced rapping, and actually reminded me a bit of Eminem and fellow Aucklanders the North Shore Pony Club. I could imagine it being played in clubs, or remixed as a dance track. It’s a pretty simple track, but enjoyable none the less.

Next up was Meat Suit, which features the refrain “I want to rock your meat suit, baby” over and over. I wasn’t as much of a fan of this track, as it was overly repetitive and got a bit annoying about halfway through (I actually never made it to the end, despite trying several times). I did like the cartoony nature of the video, but that’s only going to be interesting a couple of times through.

The last single was Stroke The Cat, was the most interesting – despite for some reason reminding me of early 90’s hip hop duo PM Dawn (that’s probably more to do with me that JCK to be honest). The song has an interesting beat that drives the song forward, a catchy chorus, and never gets too cheesy (which Meat Suit did, often).

As individual tracks I think The Vampire Trilogy offers something for everyone, but I just didn’t feel enough cohesion across the songs to make them work together as a unified work. JCK has showed that he’s still making interesting music and is setting himself apart from the majority of our local hip hop scene, but like many of our hip hop artists not everything he makes is going to appeal.