While the legacy Justin Pearson’s built for himself within the West Coast hardcore scene as a core member of The Locust, Head Wound City, and Some Girls hardly extends beyond the realm of noisecore, the San Diego–based artist’s more recent output with projects like Deaf Club and Dead Cross manage to spill over into powerviolence and crossover thrash without losing the defining buzziness of his prior work. Yet the most out-there venture he’s embarked on yet may be Planet B, a synth-punk venture alongside Luke Henshaw (who also plays with Pierson in the arguably more out-there ritual-ambient Satanic Planet) that tends to cross over into the realm of hip-hop, courtesy of guest spots from Kool Keith on their 2018 debut and turntablist D-Styles on their upcoming follow-up.
The latest single from Fiction Prediction also veers into the world of hip-hop—assuming “Rack More Brains” is grounded on any planet at all. The aggressive space-age punk tune sees Pearson’s familiar shouts facing off against the gruff nu-metal-shaded raps of Kent Osborne, a musician the Planet B frontman’s been eyeing for collaboration since last January. “I first saw Kent Osborne live when he played Deaf Club’s LP release party, and I was completely captivated,” he recalls. “When we talked about working on a track for Planet B, I had an idea to record both vocal parts, his and mine, as structure, or reference. Kent just followed up with his own stuff, which was raw, precise, and extremely punctual. Luke came up with a pretty insane track, and, well, I wanted to deliver on my end since Kent was joining forces.
“Do yourself—and me—a favor and wrap your brains around the song being in 4/4,” he adds. “Then toss in anxiety and tension, and the fact that the curators or war, all war, are neanderthals. Do we need more?”
Check out the track below, and expect Fiction Prediction to drop February 9 via Pearson’s own Three One G Records.
