- Montreal duo Grown Folk are a bit of an oddity: they've done everything from backing Oakland cloud-rappers Main Attrakionz, to knocking out slick nu disco on Young Adults. But no matter what they do, it's always with bright colours and a tuneful demeanor. Those precocious qualities spill over into righteous excess on their first release for the promising Icee Hot imprint.
The slow movement of "The Boat" initially makes it feel like it's going to be a downer, but they treat the song like a blank canvas, adding new layers of sound with every brushstroke. By the time you're halfway through it's a beautiful mess of chimes, low-end wobble, slo-mo trance motifs and someone gently intoning "work it babe." "Keep Few Near" works in the same trance-ballad mould but with a more determined house strut, playful but no less grand than its predecessor.
Gerd steps in for a rework of "The Boat" that brings its languorous elements back up to normal house speed, and while it's nice and chunky, the song loses a lot of its magic. The "work it" samples sound clichéd at this speed, especially with the Chicago-style drum machine work. Icee Hot resident Ghosts on Tape takes the same approach to his remix of "Keep Few Near," but keeps the track's wide-horizon sensibility intact.
TracklistA1 The Boat
A2 Keep Few Near
B1 The Boat (Gerd's Rework)
B2 Keep Few Near (Ghosts On Tape Remix)