Max Bell is a Ray Bradbury guy.
At this point, my writing about The Outfit, TX is unofficially part of my job at PassionWeiss. I continue because someone must. Apart from Rob Gullatte, few in Houston have as much talent and potential. (If I’m missing someone, alert me in the comments section — that’s why it’s there.) Ideally, the swangers and Vogues of the constellations will align in the near future and the spotlight will again shine on Houston like it was 2005. Until then, my Texan-slang inflected ramblings will ramble; Riff Raff will remain the city’s most visible export (expat?). So it goes…
“M.A.R.S.” is the latest video from The Outfit, TX’s (read: Mel and Dorian’s) Cognac / Four Corner Room. Directed by Mel, the video starts with a hilarious Chappelle Show clip, one that should be requisite for any and all songs that reference the red planet. The rest features Dorian rapping somewhere on crimson-brown terrain of Houston. There are few frills, only some fitting celestial after effects.
The song itself comes from the latter half of the album (Dorian’s), the more introspective of the two. Like many Outfit, TX songs, it’s not for laptop speakers. Make that mistake and the minimal slaps will not slap, their subtlety rendered tinny and muffled. I’ve used innumerable astral adjectives to describe the group’s sonic palette, and this song falls within it. For fear of exhausting the word well, I’ll say that it’s a darker brand of their ‘cooly fooly space age funk.’
Dorian’s meditations on a potential life on Mars contain a deep sincerity. Alienation and love are commingled. If he’s destined for Mars, he wants his woman with him. This is what Kid Cudi, sans smarm and stonerisms, could’ve accomplished.
While Dorian’s lyrics aren’t suited for those tippin’, they are necessary. Texas rap has never been solely about the slab and the club. Because we don’t remind ourselves often enough, the extraterrestrials sent The Outfit, TX.
