Chicagos Air Credits are still having a ball with their dystopian visions – Chicago Reader

Few pop acts are quite as prepared to engage with climate change as Chicagos Air Credits. Since 2016, rapper ShowYouSuck (aka Clinton Sandifer) and producer Steve Reidell (half of the Hood Internet) have turned dystopian nightmares into strangely joyful songs. Theres catharsis to be found in these missives from a future where oxygen is a scarce commodity, since so many of us (but hardly enough of us) grapple with the reality of escalating global climate changehumans are wreaking havoc on the planet, pushing us closer to Air Credits bleak visions. The duos new Believe That Youre Here (Wasteland Radio New Archives) couches its moody futurism in concerns we already have today. On the tense, brittle Party Outside, for instance, Show raps about the tightening grip of the surveillance state, and if youve ever felt anxious about something youve posted online, itll hit you square in the chest. The album aint all doom and gloom, though: the dreamlike Time/Space coasts on slow-moving synths and kindly vocals from Show and Lili K. The future might look grim, but if more musicians take inspiration from the imaginative work of Air Credits, the present could get a little better.

Believe That Youre Here is available at Bandcamp. The band performs on the first day of the three-day Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest; A Queer Pride and friends and Environmental Encroachment open. Fri 8/20, music starts at 6 PM (Air Credits perform at 8:15 PM), outdoors on the 1400 block of W. Morse at Glenwood, free, all ages.

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Chicagos Air Credits are still having a ball with their dystopian visions - Chicago Reader