"an introducion to prime ape got the blues" (written in 2008)
The first steps towards an actual album release were taken sometime in '05. The first half of Prime Ape Got the Blues, Fredrik(SHURIKEN), had been an amateur rhyme constructor for several years, ALWAYS with a taste for the bizarre and humorous. He'd been hanging around with his crew drinking beer in a rural dump just outside of Gothenburg whilst listening to the crackling vinyl's version of Billie Holiday's 'You Go To My Head'. In the same off road small town Oscar(NOIS ETC) began producing music in the late 90's. As an incurable instrument hater with a severe stress disorder he began searching for "the perfect instrument" and whilst on this journey he reaped some seriously awful skills on a wide range of instruments. Over the years rock turned to hip hop to psychedelica and acoustic to electric to synth to drums and somewhere along the way all these metamorphoses formed the second half of what now resides under the name of Prime Ape Got the Blues.

So, as you might of guessed Prime Ape Got the Blues is a duo consisting of one vocalist/rapper called Shuriken and one producer called Nois etc. Together the duo produce music that sounds like(and sertainly is) hip hop, but that doesn't really fit in the specific and most obvious descriptions of the genre. Take hip hop made from a bunch of analogue electronics, throw some Dirty Harry, Quentin Tarantino and Taxi Driver on top. Then dilute this mush with a teaspoon of Kinuyo Yamashita (Castlevania) and season it with a dose of 70s rock before you finally dump the mush into a rusty blender and push the "ON" button...

... That's how you get a dose of Prime Ape Got the Blues. In part, the duos strength lies in their wide individual taste in music and their ability to integrate these influences into both the music as well as the lyrics. When the project that became Prime Ape Got the Blues began, Fredrik found himself on a journey lined by unsentimental portrays of love, pleasurable self-mockery and pitch black humor. His lyrics portray the reality he constantly finds himself in, a reality filled with boredom, love, anger and the absolute happiness you gain from working in a stockroom. In other words a reality a lot of us can relate to. Amongst other things, one reviewer had this to say about the lyrics on the duos debut album:

" .. Of course, this may not be quite "g" enough for everyone expecting the common themes of rap songs.
For those of us who's minds haven't been destroyed by mainstream rap, will find PAGTB's lyrics really entertaining. While some of the lines are almost mindless most of the lyrics are intelligently written.. "

After three years of production and setbacks, including burglary and loss of a half-finished album, the duo's debut full length was released: A juggernaut called "It's Not Easy Being Digital Being", containing 12 tracks and stretching over an hour of heavy hip hop madness. The album received fine to outstanding critique from those who could understand Prime Ape Got the Blues' sometimes chaotic sound, and got the boot from those who had trouble thinking beyond the flavors of traditional pop, NO MATTER THE GENRE.

GOURMÉ! RECORDS, PRESS ©2008

For additional info, interviews etc contact Prime Ape Got the Blues HERE.
PRESS! CLICK HERE(right click/save as) TO DOWNLOAD THE BIO plus additional info IN A TEXT DOCUMENT.