Tag: Hillydilly

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

EP Stream: Zaia’s “Reset EP”

Zaia is an up-and-coming, 21-year-old Atlanta, GA-born and based singer/songwriter, who has received attention across the blogosphere including the likes of HillyDilly and ThisSongIsSick and others over the past couple of years for a bold, genre-bending sound that draws from hip-hop, R&B, neo-soul, soul and 70s funk — and has been compared to Kid Cudi and Childish Gambino. Building upon a growing profile, the up-and-coming Atlanta-born and-based artist released two critically applauded singles this year “Waste My Time” and “Blue,” which has amassed over 1,000,000 Spotify streams. He was also featured on the cover of Spotify’s Mellow Bars playlist. 

Zaia’s debut EP Reset, which features the aforementioned “My Time” and “Blue” was officially released today and the material thematically explores the vast, complex and frequently contradictory range of emotions that accompany a particularly bitter, emotional breakup with the aim of supporting others going through similar experiences. “I wrote Reset as a way to vent about the mental reset I had to go through after a long-term relationship. I went from feeling really happy to really depressed for a long period of time,” Zaia explains in press notes. “I think everyone goes through some sort of ‘reset’ after something deeply affects the way they feel and think about things. I tried to represent the moodiness of the emotions we experience with each different track, that’s why they all have different energies in the production.”  

“Counseling,” Reset’s slow-burning and brooding neo-soul inspired opening track is centered around an atmospheric arrangement of shimmering and arpeggiated Rhodes piano, a sinuous bass line and Zaia’s plaintive vocals expressing bitterness, denial and frustration — all of which he wants to desperately wants to escape from, but can’t. And while the song’s narrator briefly admits that he’s kind of fucked up — he’s selfish and a bit off, he says — he doesn’t think that therapy or counseling session with a judgmental professional will help him much. Nor does he seem to want to look very deeply into himself. Give me booze, give me drugs, let try to forget everything that’s ever happened, he seems to say.  Admittedly, sometimes that’s a pretty damn good option. “Blue,” the EP’s second track is a brooding and atmospheric track that’s one part shoegazing JOVM mainstays The Veldt, one part contemporary pop and one part old-school blues, as it captures a narrator, who can’t seem to get over and move on from the breakup — and in some way is haunted (and tortured) by the ghosts of that relationship. “Waste My Time,” is a track that owes a sonic debt to hip-hop and neo-soul as it’s centered around a sultry bass line, boom-bap-like drums while the Atlanta-based alternates between a sing-songy/rhyming and traditional vocal delivery. But unlike the other songs, it’s a sort of angry tell-off to a lover/love-interest. “On the Run” is a Quiet Storm-inspired bit of neo-soul that sounds like one-part sultry come-on, one-part reconciliation, one part desperate plea — but with an underlying tacit sense that the song’s narrator recognizes that going back to his lover may be a bit fucked up. “Grace,” the feverish psych soul meets hip-hop finale radiates an uneasy peace and acceptance with the narrator’s situation. 

While further establishing the Atlanta-based artist’s genre-bending sound, his debut EP also reveals an artist, who has an uncanny and downright unerring knack for pairing an infectious hook with earnest, lived-in songwriting that accurately captures the confusing and contradictory emotions and thoughts of an embittering breakup.

The recently released accompanying visual EP is set to specifically tell the story of the song’s narrator, his bitter breakup and gradual (and perhaps begrudging) acceptance of his plight.  “The reason I wanted to make the music video this way is because each song goes together to tell a story, or this rollercoaster of events. Visually we brought that to life, like a reenactment of the entire experience,” Zaia says. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Zak Waters is a Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter, DJ and producer, who has started to grab the attention of the blogosphere with his solo recording project Pretty Sister, a project that specializes in what Waters had dubbed Z Funk, a sound that is equally indebted to Parliament Funkadelic and 90s G-funk hip-hop; but with modern production techniques and a shamelessly frank lyrical sensibility that focuses on things like booty-call texting, long distance love and sexual frustration and so on. And with Waters’ latest single, the sensual come on “Come to L.A.,” you’ll quickly see why the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, producer and DJ has received praise from the likes of Vice Noisey, HillyDilly and others as the song consists of a sinuous bass line, silky and cascading organ and keyboard chords paired with Waters’ sultry and effortlessly soulful vocals. Sonically speaking, the song strikes me as being the oversexed lovechild of Rick James and Parliament Funkadelic while fitting in comfortably with the contemporary neo-soul and funk movements that have won over the blogosphere lately.

Lyrically, the song and its narrator is focusing on sexual frustration of his long-distance love not being near — and it’s full of naughty sexual innuendo, double entendres and outright sexual come-ons that will make the listener both blush and get incredibly horny, while being a two-step worthy, slickly produced jam.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Daniel Cartisano is a Sydney, Australia-based electronic music artist, producer and vocalist, and his solo recording project MK Grands draws from a diverse array of influences including Tom Waits, Arca, Bon Iver, and Flying Lotus, and in a relatively short period Cartisano has received praise and attention nationally and internationally through features on Triple J‘s Unearthed, HillyDilly, French publications Teez FM and Pause Musicale and GQ Magazine UK among others for a icy and broodingly atmospheric pop sound.

Building on the national and international buzz that he has already received, Cartisano will be releasing an EP at some point in the near future — but in the meantime, his latest single “Hold You Down,” is a sparse track that pairs ominously swirling and icy synths, glitchy beats and Cartisano’s plaintive falsetto as the song slowly builds up with a layer of cascading synths that appear towards the song’s last 45 seconds or so.

The song is centered around the deeply conflicting and intense feelings shared by two people, who are trying to leave each other after being together for a considerable period of time. In other words, it captures the strange push and pull sensation of desire, longing, revulsion and contempt that can frequently come about in long-term relationships. But at the core of the song is the sense that it comes from a deeply personal experience — one that’s paradoxically almost universal for anyone, who’s been in a long-term relationship.