- Second generation experimental pop and dance music.
- umru's debut EP, Search Result, uses language that wouldn't have translated so easily five years ago. There's a track called "Linkrot," which is a word for old hyperlinks that lead to dead websites. In the past, this sort of jargon would only be understood by an informed and online-savvy few. It's now part of the vocabulary for people who have grown up in the digital age. You could say the same thing about umru's music.
The New York-based producer was already emulating PC Music's avant-pop when he was discovered by the label's founder, A.G. Cook, on SoundCloud. Just 19 years old, umru has already worked with the Estonian rapper Tommy Cash and coproduced a track for Charli XCX. Search Result features vocal contributions from similarly Auto-Tuned and pop-conscious peers like Ravenna Golden and Laura Les. "Recurse" is an instrumental track with shimmering ambience and wordless choral vocals that recalls the tone and slickness of Sinjin Hawke & Zora Jones. "Heat Death," featuring Banoffee, is a standout, as the LA-based producer's heavily filtered singing shifts registers in line with the track's lumbering beat and epic bass drops. "Chemistry" is less impactful, with stripped back production and vocoder vocals that feel disjointed. It's hard to believe we're already experiencing the second generation of firebrand producers shaking up the notion of pop and dance music through this millennial style.
Tracklist01. Recurse
02. Popular
03. Sticky
04. Chemistry
05. Heat Death
06. Linkrot