He’s constantly pushing the envelope, but his music has a comforting, familiar – and indeed an enveloping – feel.
It's exciting and unique music, not falling neatly in with any of his dubstep/singer/songwriter peers or the large number of indie-leaning electronic producers.
The long-time producer's debut LP ... finds the Lewisham lyricist delivering poignant wanderings from within his inner-monologue, while voicing a soul-expanding sound that makes James Blake's noir&B cool seem like nothing more than ostentatious art school assignments.
It’s ambitious, even expansive, in scope, despite the introspection his lyrics communicate, and even if it wasn’t the intention, he provides an incredible snapshot of urban life through the lens of love and brittle electro-soul.
It takes in all manner of influences both cogent and disparate and doesn’t so much as mash them together. Rather, it encourages and coaxes them to get along and work in harmony with each other.
For all its texture and depth, the synth-heavy production sounds nearly flat, but that’s hardly an issue with the flourishes of creativity that make up of the bulk of ilp. Even for those of us can’t see what Kwes sees when we hear his music, ilp is a colorful experience.
Although not as immediate as his collaborators’ work, his introversion pulls you into his unique soundscape.
It seems that Kwes has bitten off more than he can chew, for now.
For someone so ‘Bashful’, his record is mightily self-assured.
On his debut LP ilp, producer/singer Kwes’ gentle songwriting sensibilities are unable to keep up with his exploratory beat making and the result is too often a mismatch.
Considering its lengthy gestation period, this debut on the whole feels slight rather than ambitious, neither focused enough to nail its poppy potential nor madcap enough to feel like a properly strange, experimental pop album.
He doesn't break into this persona often enough, slipping back into ILP's default tone.
While Ilp proves he can walk the walk, he often fails to talk the talk.
A trimmed album with good vocals and nice electronic sounds! It doesn't have the "it" to make me put a higher score even though i wanted to!
1 | Purplehands 5:13 | |
2 | 36 4:03 | |
3 | Rollerblades 3:45 | |
4 | Cablecar 8:01 | |
5 | Flower 4:37 | |
6 | Hives 3:29 | |
7 | Broke 4:23 | |
8 | Chagall 2:41 | |
9 | Parakeet 2:28 | |
10 | B_shf_l 4:10 |
#46 | / | musicOMH |