And though their voices dominate the tape, Wayne also throws in what ought to be his calling card, YSR Gramz’s “Grease,” plus appearances from RMC Mike and Grindhard E on “Fake Sleep.” Anyone paying close attention to Michigan might know the dudes in the booth, but with Grease Files, Wayne616 shifts the focus to the ominous bell rings, fleet-footed snares and clipped cymbal crashes that back them. Grease Files technically is just a compilation of old songs Rio and Louie had lying around but hadn’t used yet, so you’re hearing a hunger in corners you might’ve expected one or the other to coast.
This subtle but significant distinction matters less when his forces combine with two of the Great Lakes State’s finest, Rio Da Yung OG and Louie Ray - one the reigning king of the sound, the other ascendant after an unfocused early run. But run that back a second: Wayne616, whose “greasy” sound began as Mannie Fresh- and Brick Squad-influenced backing beats for his own R&B crooning before he gave up life on the mic for one behind the boards (“I smoke too much for that” he said in an interview recently), isn’t even from those cities, instead pumping out as many as 30 beats a day from the other side of the state in Grand Rapids. In a year where hip-hop has taken on the contours of Michigan’s influence more than ever, it seems important to highlight that a major attraction of the street raps emanating from Flint and, to a lesser extent, Detroit aren’t just the off-kilter rappers. Nelson himself, in a song title, maybe sums up the feeling best: “Outskirts, Dreamlit.” It seems to exist somewhere out past both the Durutti Column’s gentler work and the KLF’s Chill Out and it is spellbinding. There are some touches on The Patience Fader that hark back to earlier work (it’s kind of amazing what he does with a harmonica here, evoking both the use of melodica in dub and the uses Walt McClements put an accordion to on last year’s excellent A Hole in the Fence), but long stretches of this dusky, plangent LP seem to be constructed of just sparse guitar and pedal steel. I knew not to expect the ambient dub atmosphere of that record from this one, but maybe the biggest surprise for me is how consonant this work is with that entry from decades ago something in Nelson’s tone or palette seem to hold no matter the instruments or genres he works with. American record I really dug into was 2000’s 360 Business/360 Bypass, and that was because Alan and Mimi from Low sung one of the songs there.Mark Nelson is a musician who’s work I’ve enjoyed but haven’t explored much (and have always meant to, whether on his own as Pan
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