The Sunset on Mount Rainier

If there's one thing you never expect to write 2 months in a row its condolences posts. Shit.

Just within the past couple of hours it's come out that Josh "MC Gigahertz" Montgomery has passed away. I have nothing in the way of details, but, then again, I don't reckon those mean much anyway. What we do know is that a young artist is gone, and that's more than enough information as far as I'm concerned.

I'm sure a lot of guys have some great personal stories about Gigahertz; he tag-teamed with MadHatter, was a regular collaborator with D-Form and he and my boy Beefy knew each other well from the PacNW scene. But I'll simply remember him as a true performer. In a community where live performance doesn't come easy to some, he was a cat that genuinely enjoyed himself on stage.

Still, the best way to celebrate the life of a musician is through his music, and--while most are surely gonna wanna talk about barrel-rolls and "absurdcore"--there is, in my opinion, only one Gigahertz track that is appropriate for this somber occasion. It comes from the Puget Sound Mixtape, not a nerdcore project but an indie rap comp from a fine collection of Washington-based lyricists.

It captures Gigahertz's uncanny ability to spin a musical yarn, and, fittingly enough, similarly captures the subtle melancholy of good days come to an end.