- Genre: 'Trip-Hop'
- Release Date: '7th December 2018'
Our Rating:
I have no idea how I came to be on the mailing list for this. I’m not complaining, but am perhaps a little weirded out – as they say – by the arrival of this in my inbox, direct from 4tlas. I’m not bothered that they know who I am – but where did they get my personal email address from, given that it’s not in the public domain?
Because I’m intrigued, I watch the video first. It captures 4tlas (whose real name remains undisclosed) in a series of different locations, from rubble-strewn desertscapes to floating in a pool surrounded by US currency via a bohemian-looking living room with various bottles of booze while smoking a cigarette with a certain sultry poise. The narrative -if there is one – is unclear, but it’s visually striking.
Anyway: the second release from this London-based artist is a cut above your average R&B effort. She described her inspiration as “the feeling of being ‘blue’ and the timeless emotion between heaven and hell,” and like its predecessor, ‘heART’, ‘SMTHNG’ is infused with a deep melancholy, but conveys a complex range of emotions, packaged in swathes of low, slow beats and dramatic synth strikes that create a dramatic tension. And it’s really rather good: 4tlas could be onto SMTHNG here.