Ohbliv – Monoatomic (ohbliv.bandcamp.com)
Ohbliv’s latest release, the Monoatomic EP, is a seven track collection of the Richmond native’s signature style of throwback beats. In a period of overproduced studio maximalists, Ohbliv’s style harkens back to a time when hip hop was a minimalist’s game. Each track is a heavily scavenged, strung-together body of sampled bass lines and string hits that metamorphosed before your eyes into something completely new. Bliv’s beats come in as smooth as blunt smoke, bobbing within the r&b funk that has become the latest sound making up his sampling palette. The laid back tone is accentuated by the slow tempos and soul vocal samples, evoking a dark sensuality a la Prince that carries the mood of the EP’s initial tracks. The beats kick into high gear with the outstanding and bass heavy “Fate Fer Breakfast,” a bouncy west coast groove that comes off like a very stoned and pleasant walk around the block on a hot summer morning. It’s followed by the equally buoyant “Kaptchaa,” a horn-driven almost-reggae track with vocals that celebrate the hypnotizing beauty of melody. Ohbliv’s record bin-digging dedication to the roots of hip hop can be felt. Each track translates the work, sweat, and most of all realness of each manually triggered sample making up the beats, creating a feeling of straightforward authenticity in an era of overdone imitators.
Spacemonster – Gills (americanspacemonster.bandcamp.com)
This local act’s debut EP, Gills, is an excellently executed collection of lo-fi pop that feels like a document of teenage heartbreak and malaise. There is a plodding, going-nowhere sense to the music that makes its subtle and droning production shine. It’s as if you had just landed in the middle of some Polaroid picture, slowly being bleached white by the sun. The opener, “We are Too,” takes the soft pop of Elliott Smith and infuses it with hope and brightness, which elevates the song to an uplifting height through a wall of stomping percussion and understated guitars. Spacemonster shakes up its folk aesthetic with the electro infused “Tape Wormsss,” a spacey drum machine ballad. This song’s arching strings and keys create a truly forlorn sense of digital melancholy, which seems to be the group’s bread and butter.
Boas – Grave Dreams (boas.bandcamp.com)
Boas’ second EP is one of the best things to come out of Richmond this year. The rich and textural sonic world created by Boas’ music unveils itself with each subtle nuance and variation of the massive array of sounds that make up each track. The title track, “Grave Dreams,” is an intoxicatingly strange brew of throbbing electronic bass lines and warbling vocals racing against scattered drums that penetrate the stereo sphere. The album’s dark and sinister electro, created by masses of oscillating screeches and chirps, is augmented by the music’s inherent organic core. Violas and guitars creating a vast diversity of aural chaos on songs like the rambunctious “Dried Out Lake.” The songs are haunting and meticulous in their production, and the vocals creep through the mix with a hushed ambience that leaves the instrumentation as the driving force of the music. The album reaches its crest with the skipping guitar loops and heavy back beat of “Work and Travel,” and the frantic near club beat of “A Little Less Familiar.” Grave Dreams defines Boas’ own style of experimental electronic music, honing it in and crystallizing it in a document of epic proportions.
Ohbliv – Monoatomic (ohbliv.bandcamp.com)
Ohbliv’s latest release, the Monoatomic EP, is a seven track collection of the Richmond native’s signature style of throwback beats. In a period of overproduced studio maximalists, Ohbliv’s style harkens back to a time when hip hop was a minimalist’s game. Each track is a heavily scavenged, strung-together body of sampled bass lines and string hits that metamorphosed before your eyes into something completely new. Bliv’s beats come in as smooth as blunt smoke, bobbing within the r&b funk that has become the latest sound making up his sampling palette. The laid back tone is accentuated by the slow tempos and soul vocal samples, evoking a dark sensuality a la Prince that carries the mood of the EP’s initial tracks. The beats kick into high gear with the outstanding and bass heavy “Fate Fer Breakfast,” a bouncy west coast groove that comes off like a very stoned and pleasant walk around the block on a hot summer morning. It’s followed by the equally buoyant “Kaptchaa,” a horn-driven almost-reggae track with vocals that celebrate the hypnotizing beauty of melody. Ohbliv’s record bin-digging dedication to the roots of hip hop can be felt. Each track translates the work, sweat, and most of all realness of each manually triggered sample making up the beats, creating a feeling of straightforward authenticity in an era of overdone imitators.
Spacemonster – Gills (americanspacemonster.bandcamp.com)
This local act’s debut EP, Gills, is an excellently executed collection of lo-fi pop that feels like a document of teenage heartbreak and malaise. There is a plodding, going-nowhere sense to the music that makes its subtle and droning production shine. It’s as if you had just landed in the middle of some Polaroid picture, slowly being bleached white by the sun. The opener, “We are Too,” takes the soft pop of Elliott Smith and infuses it with hope and brightness, which elevates the song to an uplifting height through a wall of stomping percussion and understated guitars. Spacemonster shakes up its folk aesthetic with the electro infused “Tape Wormsss,” a spacey drum machine ballad. This song’s arching strings and keys create a truly forlorn sense of digital melancholy, which seems to be the group’s bread and butter.
Boas – Grave Dreams (boas.bandcamp.com)
Boas’ second EP is one of the best things to come out of Richmond this year. The rich and textural sonic world created by Boas’ music unveils itself with each subtle nuance and variation of the massive array of sounds that make up each track. The title track, “Grave Dreams,” is an intoxicatingly strange brew of throbbing electronic bass lines and warbling vocals racing against scattered drums that penetrate the stereo sphere. The album’s dark and sinister electro, created by masses of oscillating screeches and chirps, is augmented by the music’s inherent organic core. Violas and guitars creating a vast diversity of aural chaos on songs like the rambunctious “Dried Out Lake.” The songs are haunting and meticulous in their production, and the vocals creep through the mix with a hushed ambience that leaves the instrumentation as the driving force of the music. The album reaches its crest with the skipping guitar loops and heavy back beat of “Work and Travel,” and the frantic near club beat of “A Little Less Familiar.” Grave Dreams defines Boas’ own style of experimental electronic music, honing it in and crystallizing it in a document of epic proportions.
