Tilted, Woozy

Ten days ago, on New Year's Eve, XXYYXX released a new album via his bandcamp. This album, his third, followed up his self-titled debut which came out almost two years ago, and Mystify, which followed shortly afterwards. This new album, though, was released under his own name, Marcel Everett; entitled (II), it signals a change in musical direction for the artist, shifting slightly away from the warped and twisted sonic textures of his first two albums, towards more experimental soundscapes. 2014 is certain to be a big year for Everett, not least because he'll graduate from high school and head off to college.

I think it's easy to get side-tracked by his astonishing precocity when discussing his music: frankly, his debut album would have been amazing from any musician, let alone a sixteen year old kid who made it in his bedroom. I fucking loved the album opener, 'About You', so hard back in 2012; putting together this post, I was amazed that it has a scarcely credible 13 million views on the youtubes, something surely related to the video's crazed 420 aesthetic, because that's a mind-poppingly high number for such a baroque, weirdly tilted and woozy tune, no matter how brilliant (or, alternatively, there are a lot more people with a lot better taste out there than I imagine).

Another favourite from the first album was 'Good Enough', which, when the sample reveals itself for the first time, surely provokes an exclamation of pure joy from the listener.

I listened to the new album a couple of times on train journeys since it was released. Its ambitiously experimental; he's a long way from the dancefloor here, and there's even something here of Holly Herndon's cerebral stylings. I seriously like it.

Probably the artist XXYYXX reminds me of the most, especially in his handling of a sample, is Jacques Greene. I was first aware of him even before I heard his music or knew his name, because he was the cute guy in the glasses that Azealia Banks was shouting at deliciously in the '212' video.

I gather he's something of a superstar DJ, in demand behind the wheels of steel these days, but he's been fairly consistently releasing EPs over the last couple of years. Insanely good was the track 'Another Girl', which again has an astonishingly dexterous treatment of its main sample, toying with the listener through the syntax of the song, just playing with the looping repeated phrases until eventually all becomes clear.

Last year saw him release 'On Your Side', a tune in collaboration with How To Dress Well. Now I'm not bashful in saying that Tom Krell is hands down my favourite musician working at the moment, and as far as I'm concerned the man walks on fucking water, but I really struggled to like 'On Your Side' (and am still struggling: still, no-one bats 1.000, right?). Much better was the last track on that EP, 'Quicksand'. At any rate, they're both pushing beyond whatever the hell 'chillstep' was supposed to be two years ago, and the woozy aesthetic they inhabit is something I hope they both forge on with, because I love it.