Apparently, Ikey Owens likes to chill out a lot when not doing high-energy prog-rock with the spastic boys of Mars Volta. The styles and textures are so varied it was hard to even keep up with all the transitions in my track descriptions. Ranges from electronica, instrumental, hip hop, experimental noise, to strange blends of all of the above and more. Despite this varied smashup of styles, for the most part these are very laidback. The whole thing just screams of “cool.” Description scribbled on the bottom right is as apt as anything I can think of: “Nice mostly chill electronica w/ hip hop moments.” I enjoyed it all, my picks: 1,5,6,8
*1- very varied. starts with laidback keyboard with swirling noise underneath, gradually flute, harp, a reed, synth and other textures swirl in, horns at 5 minutes with quick brief hiphop outburst.
2- beeping noises, then badass head-nodding music with hushed vocals, fem backup, electronic glitches. fades out
3- sorta a more chill (and better) n.e.r.d., distorted vox, song title (“underwater reverb”) pretty apt
4- echoey electronica with real drums, no voice
*5- sampled talking, sorta creepy sounding, then glitchy space-like noises (almost reminds me of flaming lips).
**6- incredibly good portishead impression. at around 2 minutes beat comes in, rapping breaks in for a verse. fem chorus very cool. whole song is just very slick, i’m lovin it
7- too many layers to even describe them all, a little faster than the norm here, breaks down at 2 minutes followed by a beatless rap for minute, followed by distorted guitar, then applause, then beats and keyboard
*8- most hip hop-ish, very cool
9- surprise, surprise: this sounds disjointed! fem chipmunk-like distorted singing, ends bizarrely
10- remix of track 7, fem singing reminds me of the melody in eminem’s “stan.” this time around the rap is supported by driving drums