Browsing Tag

trip-hop

MANTRABLU tripped out trap in his latest juggernaut of a track, NIPTUCK

Posted on 30 July 2023

Brooklyn-based singer, rapper, and producer MANTRABLU has dropped his juggernaut of an experimental trap hit, NIPTUCK; with the razor-sharp wit and equally as cutting trip-hop atmosphere, few urban originators have as much edge as the artist who takes his influence from everything from math rock to neo-soul to jazz-funk.

After a wavy chiptune prelude, MANTRABLU’s rolling-with-the-punches rap bars adrenalize the texturally complex soundscape that stands as a testament to his trailblazing authenticity. Get behind him or get out of the way, because if any contemporary artist has what it takes to make a fresh mark on the Brooklyn hip-hop landscape it is him – especially now he’s breaking away from his production-focused discography and going back to his origins as a songwriter.

Stream NIPTUCK which hit the airwaves in May 2023 on Spotify and Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Chicago hip-hop duo, It’s a Cool Day, extrapolated ‘The Butterfly Effect’ in their debut

Posted on 27 June 2023

The Chicago duo, It’s a Cool Day put the trip in trip-hop by unveiling their elevated debut single, The Butterfly Effect, which fuses lush RnB melodies and harmonies with smooth rap verses and a pseudo-trap beat that becomes the centre of sonic gravity in the wavy, gravitas-packed single.

Craig Lowe and Derion Scroggins ripped up the urban rulebook and scattered the confetti through the vibe-steady hit, which spills a smorgasbord of soul as it mellowly progresses around the poetically ardent wordplay. Cathartic and convictive in its sense of passion, The Butterfly Effect is all the evidence you need that romance isn’t dead and that It’s a Cool Day has exactly what it takes to reign supreme in the Chicago scene and beyond.

The Butterfly Effect is now available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

CONT4MIN4TED – This is the Way: An Alt-Electronica Journey for the Mind, Body, Soul, and Rhythmic Pulses

Posted on 16 May 2023
https://soundcloud.com/cont4min4ted/sets/this-is-the-way/s-lYo30PwNNHK?ref=clipboard&p=a&c=1&si=67a3e5c169854d6d9ec28a67dcadf4b6&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

After aurally relinquishing their emotional baggage via their debut LP, the Gainesville, GA alt-electronica producer, CONT4MIN4TED, went even further leftfield with their sophomore album, This is the Way, which will take you on a journey of the mind, body, soul and rhythmic pulses.

I could dissect each of the 16 singles that were intuitively curated to orchestrate the ultimate sonic experience, but perceptibly, the greatest achievement of this LP is the cinematic journey it will take you on straight from track one, Stuck, before the stagnation lifts in the fervidly exhilarating soundtrack, Drifting.

Even with the chillier tones and ethereal vocal lines in the cinematic slices of synthesised soul, you won’t fail to find the impassioned warmth in the emotion and experience-driven soundtracks to vignettes that are universally shared. The album is enough to make you forgo your usual vibe-out electronica playlists; it is a smorgasbord of constantly in-flux electronica ingenuity. For your sanity’s sake, sink your teeth into the catharsis.

Stream This is the Way from April 28 on SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Timothy and the Apocalypse pushed the boundaries of apocalyptic perception with his ambient trip-hop LP, All Busted Up 

Posted on 19 April 2023

Since 2021, the Australian artist and producer Timothy and the Apocalypse has been taking over the ambient trip-hop scene; the cinematically lush layers in his downtempo discography soundtrack society as we cling to the precipice of our destruction. In his fourth album, All Busted Up, written between the dystopian motifs are memorandums of what it means to be human on the edge of blind capitalist collective masochism. 

After track one, Speed of Life, which mournfully ponders how much sand stands between our demise, inspired by the loss of his mother, the LP slams into the sexier than The Deftones groove-driven piece, The Reckoner. The angularly harbingering guitars and fervid breakbeats cloaked under reverb definitively prove that visceralism isn’t out of the producer’s remit. 

Track three, When You Dream, lays the barely lucid psychedelia on thick as the Lynchian soundscape drifts through its arrestingly jarring progressions that distort jazzy timbres and soul-soaked ethereal female vocals. In all sincerity, it is enough to make Portishead sound pedestrian.

Track four, Driving Me Crazy, lends itself well to the titular illusion; the dreamy descent into surrealism drifts through subversively glitchy progressions in the extended piece, which keeps you hooked into the artfully experimental beguile. If any soundscape on the LP will make a meal of your rhythmic pulses while vindicating your own insanity, it is this sonic gem. 

Track five, Saved, introduces some darker ambient industrial tones while still scribing the sonic signature that the preceding singles have allowed you to become accustomed to before Beautiful Chaos melodically exhibits the relenting capacity of awe in times of mass disillusion. With nuanced Eastern flavour worked into the kaleidoscopic rhythms, Timothy and The Apocalypse broke the monocultural mould to deliver his staunch fanbase from entropy.

Dreaming When You Hold Me could only be described as a leftfield electronica dream for the way the transcendence binds with the experimental gravitas permitted by the strobing synths, a sonic theme which continues through to track eight, Only You; the deliciously distorted soundscape is a meditation in tranquil obscurity. 

By closing the LP on Nothing Forever, Timothy and the Apocalypse sealed the album’s fate, allowing it to resonate as one of the most seminal ambient electronica records of the year. It’s the ultimate audial space for reflection on all the instrumental introspection that preceded it. If you want to push the boundaries of your apocalyptic perception, take a dive – you won’t regret it. 

All Busted Up will officially release on April 14th; catch it on Spotify & SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast 

 

Trip-hop goes baroque in Lakitah’s latest bullet to the monocultural mould, The Fall ft. EvenstAr

Posted on 18 March 2023

Lose yourself in the fantastical atmosphere of Lakitah’s latest single, The Fall, featuring EvenstAr; the baroquely histrionic brand of trip-hop melodically works to create a mise en scene of isolation and introspection.

The international collaboration project, led by vocalist and guitarist Dominika Zdrodowski, started as a lockdown-born endeavour, but as the struggle for hope is still as endemic as it was when we were commanded to keep distance between each other, and just as insular in our alienation, the project still thrives. You only need to slip into the artful opulence of the Fall to affirm that for yourselves.

The featuring artist EvenstAr takes influence from trip-hop acts, such as Portishead and Massive Attack; put against the monocultural-mould smashing beguile laid out by Lakitah, The Fall is an Avant-Garde emblem you will want to treasure for as long as you want to keep hold of your sanity.

Stream EvenstAr on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rae Larz drifted into the 5th dimension in her spacey synth-pop debut, Tea in the Stratosphere

Posted on 23 February 2023

Here to warn us that reality isn’t what we think it is, is the up-and-coming experimental artist Rae Larz, who could give Bjork a run for her Avant-Garde money with her introspectively spacey hit, Tea in the Stratosphere.

Stirring her artfully psychedelic single with a heavy dose of futurism ensured that she established herself as an orchestrator of soul-emancipating sonic remedies, which take us far beyond the maladies of the 21st century.

The decadently soft synth lines lustfully collide with the trip-hop-y percussive fills and the nuanced slithers of jazz timbres and other world music elements that heighten this elevated hit to the nth degree.

Every aural inch of Tea in the Stratosphere was written, performed, produced, and engineered by Rae Larz herself. Evidently, the Brooklyn-based originator will become an unreckonable force in the industry.

Tea in the Stratosphere was officially released on February 3rd via Jupiter’s Luck Records. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Spotlight Feature: Pinwheel Valley transcendentally reflects in his accessible Avant-Garde ambient EP, What If I

Posted on 3 February 2023

On February 3rd, the superlatively talented songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Pinwheel Valley will unveil his most experimental EP to date, What If I, as a departure from his indie-psych hits. Bar spoken word philosophical verses in the title single, the instrumental EP allows the dynamic instrumentals to set the tone, atmosphere, and sonic ideology.

The opening single, R.E.M. State, reaches the pinnacle of tranquillity as the lush reverb counters the visceralism of the trip-hop-y backbeats. Before track two, Honey Ripples, gives you an oceanic opportunity to slip away from the fray and enter a subaqueous paradise.

The concluding title single is a disarmingly poignant invitation into the psyche of Pinwheel Valley. The spoken word verses compel you into matching the deep state of reflection while the experimentalism of the Avant-Garde rhythmically complex arrangement provides a serene atmosphere you will want to visit time and time again. The soulfully accommodating release is inexplicably unparalleled from what any other artist is putting into the ether.

The alchemic feat of audio engineering definitively proves Pinwheel Valley’ ability to take phenomenological fragments and create sonically serene worlds from them. If I could permanently exist within them, I would take up perpetual residence in their artistic confines.

Pinwheel Valley Said:

“R.E.M. State is inspired by the absorbingly rejuvenating instrumentals in KAYTRANADA’s single, Bus Ride. I wanted to leave a mark on the canvas of mankind’s universe by flowing into rhythmically complex territory without becoming inaccessible to my audience.

Honey Ripples was written on a rainy day, envisioning how water droplets collide with the body of a lake before reflecting the impact through the warm and creamy honey texture of the Rhodes piano, also experimenting with dolphin samples to create an underwater soundscape haven.

What If I traverses themes of revival. The instrumental track with spoken vocals speaks from the dark abyss of mortal defeat. The protagonist weighs up letting his soul disintegrate or summoning an unforeseen strength to claw out of his pit to bring about his soul’s resuscitation.”

What If I will officially release on February 3rd. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

NALLA is liberatingly demure in her orchestrally originated alt RnB Single, Sidechick

Posted on 10 January 2023

There are few things in this life as bitter-sweet as concluding that you’re a sidepiece for someone you have fallen wholeheartedly for, which NALLA demurely explores in her latest single, Sidechick.

The smoky R&B single pays homage to the roots of the genre while replanting them through a fresh futuristic vision that resounds through the distorted vocals in the intro and the glitchy rhythm of the beats that allow the sensually convictive single to veer into the trip-hop arena.

If any single is going to compel you to stand by your convictions and muster enough self-esteem to walk away from an unworthy lothario who probably needs to spend thousands in therapy before he works through his inability to commit, it’s this orchestrally scored masterpiece.

Sidechick is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Take a psychonautic trip through the cosmos with Nanoman Mucker Mush’s alt-electro single, Lost in Space

Posted on 6 January 2023

UK alt-electro originator, Nanoman Mucker Mush, used the fabric of the universe as a muse in his drone-heavy old-skool downtempo acid techno release, Lost in Space.

Nanoman Mucker Mush’s spoken-word vocals that allow you to imagine what the Prodigy would have sounded like if they recorded in the midst of a meditation session resound over the glitchy trip-hoppy instrumentals that push you far beyond the earth’s atmosphere into the vast, dark and cold cosmos.

The orchestral instrumentals add a touch of filmic flair to the gravity-defying release, while the lyrics keep the hit gritty with street attitude. It’s a potent combination that makes for a psychonautic trip you won’t regret going on.

Lost in Space hit the airwaves on December 19. Check it out via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

SXMSIDY “Loving the Crew” and Loving the Song

Posted on 27 December 2022

Forgive my juvenile vocab – I picked it up when I was playing in a Trip-Hop band, and some attendees described the sound as “baby making music.” But really, you have to think about it… some tunes just scream that we ought to turn the lights down low, pour wine, and light candles. And this leads me to Sxmskidy’s track “Loving the Crew.”

It’s a seriously downtempo song – slow with ambient background vocals pulsating throughout. Of course, we can’t get through this review without talking about Sxmsidy’s vocals – some beautiful tenor lines that ring out in the upper register. Honestly folks, he soars in the chorus amidst sparse drums and orchestral sweeps in a way that would make Pavarotti (or Seal, for that matter) blush. There’s an immense passion present in the song that you just can’t ignore.

It seems that I’m not the only who sings the praises (no pun intended) of Sxmsidy’s vocal chops – right on the homepage of his website, it reads a quote from a top playlist curator: “SXMSIDY’s voice is phenomenal: especially the way he controls his rhythm with precision…” In addition to reviews, we also get to see a fascinating bio (teaser: he was French born), and contact information. There is a lot of the website under development but more than enough to get acquainted with this rising talent.