![]() Helix offers a lot to take in over three-and-a-half minutes, so adding in the buttery Never Be Like You as track two is a clever move for the listener the airy melody, shimmering chimes and orchestral ambience are not only familiar, but catchy and easy on the ears.įrom there, we head into our first hip-hop track, Lose It featuring Vic Mensa. It’s remarkable that one track can cover so much ground, no doubt preparing the listener for what’s to come across the next hour. One minute later it drops yet again, into spasmodic, drunken syncopation. The track breaks down after ninety seconds and rebuilds with layer upon layer of flickery synth scales, percussion and explosive synths. A gorgeous opener, it will no doubt serve as the opening introduction to his live sets. Helix is atmospheric and weighty, holding a tremendous sense of value in its warbling, ambient build. The album opens with exactly the kind of track you need to open an album this anticipated. The others meanwhile, are the comedown moments, delicate and brooding, sentimental, and often vast. While these three types of songs are indeed juggled with remarkably well-divided throughout, the album is instead divided into two distinct levels: one is manic, loud and brash, indeed best encapsulated by the song title Wall Fuck. Having now listened to the record, that wasn’t a completely accurate prediction, although the instrumental tracks are certainly used to patch together those featuring singers and rappers. Finally, Tiny Cities featuring Beck was revealed earlier this week, a final teaser before today’s release.įrom these singles, and the then-released track-list, it became apparent to me that we’d be seeing three very distinct types of music weaved together throughout the release: glittery pop, heavy electro-hip-hop, and the glistening ambient and/or experimental moments tying it all together, free space to show off his production talents without bending around a singer or rapper’s top line. Vince Staples and Kučka, and the wildly experimental Wall Fuck, featuring nobody at all, but probably influenced by many late nights spent up listening to Warp Records compilations. ![]() Tove Lo one hectic hip-hop banger, Smoke & Retribution ft. He can’t repeat his first album, because that’s uninventive and boring, but he also can’t alienate his fans by abandoning his identity entirely.įlume pre-released five singles ahead of Skin: two bright and sparkly pop tunes, Never Be Like You ft. And that is exactly how I imagine Flume must have felt. Trent Reznor went on record lamenting that part of the reason the album was scrapped was because he was stuck “in the middle of ‘I can’t do this, it sounds too much like Rage / I can’t do that, it doesn’t sound enough like what they expect me to do,’” conundrum. I recently read an article on the demise of the solo album of Rage Against The Machine‘s Zack De La Rocha. You can go down the Young Thug route, where you constantly release new music in that same style and for better or worse that’s who you are, no more and no less or you can change it up constantly, a la Radiohead, to the point where the very fact that you are undefinable is how you are defined. With that in mind, I have thought a lot about the concept of a ‘signature sound,’ an idea that can be destructive or a blessing, depending on how you approach it. It’s almost impossible for artists to keep fans satisfied these days. Harley Streten, also known as Flume, has had an extremely difficult job across the past four years: to produce a follow-up to an album so crucial and influential, that he immediately became known for a “signature sound,” and indeed spawned an entire generation of young producers who set out to either emulate his unique, spacey soundscape, or create their own, citing him as a major influence.
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