Within the world of hardcore, Justice Tripp is a legend for his time fronting the truly great Baltimore band Trapped Under Ice. More recently, Tripp has also made a bunch of records as the leader of Angel Du$t, which started out as something resembling a hardcore band but which has evolved in some cool, weird directions in recent years. Angel Du$t released the album YAK: A Collection Of Truck Songs last year. It’s pretty much full-on power-pop, and it’s really good. (I saw Angel Du$t maybe a month and a half ago, and they ruled.) Tripp also plays guitar in the straight-up fast hardcore band Warfare, who released the very good album Doomsday earlier this year. And now Tripp has kicked off a whole other project that has virtually nothing to do with hardcore.
Tripp recently started making playful, experimental bedroom pop under the name Cold Mega. The songs have big, loopy hooks, and they mess around with synthpop and electronic stuff while still keeping some of the grit of Tripp’s past music intact. Tripp quietly self-released a four-song Cold Mega EP back in March. Today, Tripp has followed that EP by surprise-releasing Cold Mega’s self-titled debut album.
The Cold Mega album includes all four songs form the EP, and it’s also got four more. One of the new songs features the Toronto artist 9million, and another has guest vocals from Militarie Gun’s Ian Shelton. (Tripp worked with Shelton’s other project Regional Justice Center on the two-song 2020 single known as Regional Jurtice Center.) The album is short, just 18 minutes, but it’s evidence of a restless mind pushing himself in new directions. Check it out below.
Cold Mega is out now on Muck Tracks.
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