- Working on the fringes of genres, this EP assembles a no-fuss 4 AM vibe.
- So, let me get this straight. A Singapore-based music and media company hustled up a compilation featuring some of New York City's most eclectic, non-linear, house-adjacent artists? We're talking about the ones who make those 4 AM bliss joints, right? Darker Than Wax, a Singapore-based label that calls New York City its second home, has put together an EP which bops to its own version of indie, R&B, soul, Balearic, house and broken beat. Curated by Marco Weibel, who runs a weekly show in Brooklyn on The Lot Radio, Various Channels Vol 1: NYC is low-key and no-frills, offering a fetching portrait of Jitwam, James Tillman, Toribio, Ensemble Entendu, David Marston and Tristan Arpit's informal type of knock.
"Arizona" from NYC artist James Tillman, a casually intense vocalist who hits fast while enunciating slow, kicks off the EP celebrating the future with his lady: "So long to the old roads behind us." Not quite soul, not house either, this fluctuating tune reaches for mood first, achieving whimsy and defying easy categorization. You think that's vast? He cites Thundercat, Khruangbin, Drake, Byron The Aquarius, Diggs Duke and himself as his dream festival lineup, and that multiplicity is audible throughout "Arizona."
Ensemble Entendu's "Well Why Not" is another nugget of genre combo flexes. This time it hovers around a broken beat, with those oblong synthy wave oscillations working through your center. "Back To My Place," the EP's only direct 4/4 house-snare rolling arrangement, arrives four songs in, with a direct mood pulse. "Swett" by Toribio manipulates a Fender Rhodes line while it rides over tree-trunk drums and dubbed-out Bruk sway. Full of steam, Toribio pulls off that humid slice of London groove. With this assortment of producers and artists tweaking their confections and creating rapture between and outside the margins, nothing on this EP sounds tired.
Tracklist01. James Tillman - Arizona
02. David Marston - Mercury In Retrograde feat. Jitwam & Aquiles Navarro
03. Ensemble Entendu - Well, Why Not
04. Jitwam - Back To My Place
05. Toribio - Swett
06. Tristan Arp - Reflex