An ILLustrated Mess is the Flagstaff duo of emcee Prosodic and producer Cecil Tso. They’ve been going strong since they dropped their debut EP in 2012. The two found each other in high school and bonded over their Native heritage and love of music. Now, with the help of Fake Four’s Freecember series of releases, they hope to reach a wider audience with their debut album, Last Night, and All of Our Glorious Mishaps.

There are several things happening on this album, so let’s try to break them down. First, let’s talk about the overall sound of the group. As a producer, Cecil Tso is creating an interesting landscape that combines post-rock guitar with progressive electronic beats, something along the lines of Explosions in the Sky crossed with Dntel. That’s not all of it, but it will get you in the ballpark. For the album, there’s a loose concept tied together with skits that seeks to put you in the shoes of a Native American that lives on a reservation that went into town to have a drink at a bar. Over the course of the album, we touch on issues affecting their Native heritage, such as alcoholism, police aggression, suicide, and family. I don’t always encourage skits on albums, because a lot of the times the veer the album off course, but in this case, they actually frame the narrative really well and connect everything together. There are several guest on the album, including Tre Orona, .smallz., Thorts, Amber Martin, Tamara Seaton, Deidra Peaches, Douglas Begay, MC Optimal, and Cars & Trains. That’s a lot to squeeze into this short album, but An ILLustrated Mess do a good job of making sure everyone is being included in the name of the overall vision and sound of the album. The only thing that holds the album back is Prosodic, namely when he moves from rhyming to singing. Prosidic is a really talented emcee with a great flow and sense of rhythm while he’s spitting verses in a way that keeps you on your toes but also delivers a lot of information clearly as he’s describing Native life. However, there are just a handful of times when he feels the need to deliver the choruses of the songs in this emo/punk growl, and that’s where things get messy. It’s a bad combination of forced and off-pitch, where you can hear the effort and it’s falling short. It’s distracting, and it’s unfortunate because it takes me out of the songs when he does that, it just feels so disconnected from everything else. It’s especially unfortunate, because when the choruses are sung by a guest or rapped in Prosidic’s normal delivery, everything sounds great. It’s a minor issue that can easily be addressed, but it really sidetracked me from what is overall a strong album with a very specific and moving vision.

It’s not perfect, but Last Night, and All of Our Glorious Mishaps succeeds overall, namely in giving a voice to a population and life experience that is too often ignored in our country. Let’s hope that not only does An ILLustrated Mess keep going and getting even stronger, but that they inspire more of the Native population to pick up a pen, mic, drum machine, or whatever and tell their story.