E - Ecco2k

c/w: pretty in-depth disccussions of substance abuse

OKOK i will try to do this as unbiased and as true to my own opinions as possible.

This album is, fuck, so fucking good to me. Its ethereal, dirty, disgusting, beautiful, sweet. Thats the range. Its the debut album of Swedish-British artist Ecco2k. In this album, he mainly talks about his ketamine/drug abuse and his experience as a mixed man in a predominantly white community.

The albums soundscape is glossy, gracefully electronic, angelic, and pretty, but the lyrics, in contrast, focus on my “dark”, “grimy” and personal topics. His vocals add so much to this atmosphere as well, his high falsetto singing and just his normal emotional voice make every line feel like its elevating you more or more or some shit, putting you in his drug-fueled, “unreal” world he creates in this.

Songs like Fragile, maybe the best example of his ethereal background vocals and voice, mixed with the perfectly-fitted production (which ill talk about later) crafting together a ethereal world that i feel like is supposed to be emblimatic of his life. In the song, he talks about cooking up ketamine, consuming it/MDMA and the effects it has on his body, making his heart race and makes it “stop and start”, breaking his teeth/causing his jaw to clench, unable to speak because of it.

I find it beautiful he can speak so openly on the fact hes addicted, and knows it, then spins that shit into a beautiful song. This album feels reflective of his drug addiction, acknowledging it and admitting he does have a problem. He openly just details about himself snorting crystals, “bringing the bag out like its nothing” & crushing rocks with an oyster card at the bus stop.

On tracks such as Calcium, Peroxide, and Blue Eyes, he also talks about his experience as a mixed man living in the EU (actually crazy) and how he earns stares, how stereotypes shape his character/preconcived & prejudiced notions. In Blue Eyes he repeats over and over that all his friends have blue eyes, as if to emphasize how “out of place” it feels to not be white in the community he lives in.

The production, mostly done by Yung Gud and other close associates/friends, is so fucking crazy. Its minimal, the beats aren’t much, but so subtle and careful and tasteful the created. Its so fitting, the album feels “naked” in a way from the, in my opinion, minimal production aside from vocal effects in most songs (idfk im not a song producer i would not know) but it still does so much to the music. Just the repeating beating sound, whatever instrument it is in AAA Powerline makes it so much more immersive and just amazing.

The final thing I’ll talk about is the cover. Its the “℮” symbol, often called the “estimated sign” and “e-mark” represents the maximum allowed tolerances on many EU prepacked products. This ties in the frequently recurring theme of drug abuse, like hes saying hes at his limit.

This project is so good. I’m trying to hide my bias and give it an objective rating but honestly this project is almost perfect to me. Please, listen to this album, its amazing and under 30 minutes. It’ll be worth your time, i promise.

Visions - Grimes

I will preface this review by saying this is my first introduction 2 Grimes I dont really know much about them but ive heard a lot about them so one day when i was just mindlessly drawing i decided to listen to this album. Now, while writing this, im listening to it for like the fourth time i think?? And this is my opinion of it at the moment. This is baby’s first Grimes introduction. This is my entry into like Grimes preschool. If ur like a Grimehead idfk sorry if this sucks. ALSO i have not yet listened 2 the deluxe version, i will later maybe possibly yeahhhhhh

On my first few listens i didnt resonate with this album as much as i did now. Its a lovely, trance-like magical, synthy, surreal experience. Its so simple yet so connecting at the same time, it makes me feel like im being intertwined with the music, becoming indoctrinated into the world they crafted with the soundscape of this album. Its electronic, synthy, all the words i used to describe it and more. Its all just so good, honestly.

I’m not very familiar with Grimes that much, this being my introduction to them as an artist, but after doing some very not-in-depth research on the creation of this project & some background knowledge ive gathered about them, this project was recorded entirely on GarageBand in a 2-3 week span, locked in their room on tons of amphetamines. And i think this was recorded during the time she was living in a crackden or something, im not sure, im trying to vaguely recall what ive heard. What I’m trying to say is that im assuming her life was not in a perfect place. Something about this album does capture that feeling. Its magical and beautiful, but also rough in a way. Sometimes the synth and electronic instruments whatever the fuck they are and a distorted, robotic version of their voice can be heard, or just general, more “messy” distortion on tracks can be heard. This is probably a parallel ass analogy im drawing but whatever fhjkrefhsdn dcfbgm.

The twelfth song, Skin, feels like im in a ethereal and pure yet grimy atmosphere just ascending or some shit, angelic from her “elevated” vocals, grimy from the ambient atmosphere of the song. The lyrics seem to be about a past lover thats hurt them. What I gather is that even though they didn’t love them to begin with, their touch “made [them] feel human again”, and that that person will never realize what they did for Grimes, even if unintentionally. I could talk about so many of the other songs, Visiting Statue, Colors of the Moonlight, and, well, of course, Oblivion. But thats all I have to say for now.

Overall, amazing album, and ill definetly try 2 get into more of their music!!

ESI - Slater

Recently became acquainted with the artist slater after hearing their song, Swallowed My Key. after a few weeks of just straight up forgetting to, i finally folded and listened to the EP its off of; the one im writing up a review for right now, ESI.

It was a chill experience. The first thing you’re hit with is the slick, bass-heavy start on the first song, also called ESI. No idea what “ESI” means but according to his lyrics, its possible to cruise across them. His calm, mellow voice works well with both the synthy and bouncy and smooth, chill moments across the EP. Speaking of, the beats on this project are really good at expressing a feeling of contentment, life moving by, and living, essentially. feels like im moving along to someone’s life, crusing around a car, with nothing on my mind, if that makes any sense.

My favorite song on this is still probably just Swallowed My Key, maybe because of the familiarity of/time ive already spent with the track. other tracks that I found nice though were Skittle on my Wrist, a bouncy, club-type track, Sp33din’, a chill, glidy track which i think best matches my description of this EP being like a cruise to no where in a car. I also just love his delivery on the chorus, something about it just makes me really happy for some reason. (Shoutout 2 Brainiac 2….im literally about to praise like all of the songs on this bro i like it a lot haha)

Speaking of Sp33din’, as an absolute loser, I first listened to this track via a random person’s YouTube compilation of the EP’s songs. In the end, the included the music video of Sp33din’ which doubled as one for Swallowed my Key. It was quite the story-telling treat, where Sp33din’ was him, well, speeding in a car, then transitioning to Swallowed my Key’, which was the aftermath; him being covered in blood and going to a house party of sorts. It was really nice, the first part being filmed in a green light, as if theres a thick, sick tension in the air & a careless or at least numb attitude to the things hes doing, while the second part is red, obviously because he well, fucking crashed his car with blood dripping down his face, but also, adds a weird, ethereal, but also nauseous feeling to when he enters the house party. I’m really explaining this like dog shit, but please, watch the video for yourself, its wonderfully done!!

Overall, great EP, enjoyed it a lot! 8/10 and heavily recommend if ur bored and want to jam out to some chill songs !

update: this is so bad dont read it ill rewrite it one day this is so fucking bad it isnt even funny

Icedancer - Bladee

ICEDANCER is Swedish artist Bladee's third mixtape (though most (i) call it an album) filled with 19 songs of magnificent album of electronic, bubbly, aquatic sounds, monotone yet emotional vocals, and features from the likes of Yung Lean, Cartier'GOD and Thaiboy Digital. this album was my personal introduction to Bladee, an artist that has fundamentally reshaped the way I listen to music and my tastes in general. i went from a normie to a loser emo fuck real quick.

The name fits this album perfectly. No other title would be able to capture the glossy, "bloopy", cold oceanic feel this album radiates. This album entirely by the music group Ripsquad and executively produced by members Rip and Lusi.

Maybe his newer work features more detailed lyrics, but i find the lyrics in this album to be very relatable and real as fuck. for example, the verse of the song Close, one of my favorites off the album:

some would find it a "nothing burger" of words that mean nothing, but i think it captures the feeling of being in love and a weird middle ground of a relationship very simply and accurately. and while in the later part of the album's flows do seem to get repeatitive in the latter half of the album (one of my few critiques) i do enjoy the mix of his stretched out flow (i.e. Be Nice 2 Me) and faster flow, such as SmartWater.

if i were to divide Bladee's discography into three categories, it would be his emo sadistic phase, eletronic phase, and angelic, uplifting phase. This song falls perfectly into his electronic phase, with notes of his sadism from previous projects and angel-like qualities from his works that were yet to come (333, exeter, good luck, etc.) i would even consider this the perfect calmination of all his songs, and i strongly suggest people who are trying to get into him listen to this album first.

WASTER APPRECIATION:

My personal favorite off of this album, as well as my favorite Bladee song in general is Waster. For just a bit more than two minutes, you are swept into a world of bliss and ecstasy. The harmonic beat mixing perfectly with Bladee's autotuned to fuck vocals and booming bass is beautiful.

LAST NOTE: blue version of wodg cover real