Quadeca – “Vanisher, Horizon Scraper” review

Quadeca is a 24 year old singer/songwriter, producer, YouTuber & rapper from Los Angeles, California whose early mixtapes Work in Progress, Nostalgia for the Now, Bad Internet Rapper & Out of Order were all received negatively as was the full-length debut Voice Memos. His sophomore effort From Me to You proved to be decent, with both I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You & Scrapyard under deadAir Records garnering widespread praise for artistically reinventing himself. Recently starting up his own label X8 Music distributed by Virgin Music, the founder is making his official debut under the imprint in the form of his 4th album a month after Kevin Abstract signed with him to put out blush.

Chico Buarque gets sampled during the post-rock, modern classical, chamber music, neo-psychedelia, totalism, progressive folk, folktronica, art pop, avant-folk, choral, MPB & capoeira intro “No Questions Asked” repetitively singing about being there when no one else is just before “Waging War” gets split up into 3 different sections built around neo-psychedelia, art pop, folktronica, glitch pop, glitch hop, progressive pop, post-rock, chamber folk, deconstructed club, experimental hip hop & experimental rock as he tries to calm himself down & attempt to take his own advice. The lusciously gentle “Ruin My Life” carries forward by talking about an existential crisis leading into art pop, jazz pop, folk pop, Bossa nova, chamber folk, lounge, progressive folk, jazz rap, progressive soul all culminating in the lead single “Godstained”.

“At a Time Like This” continues the first half of Vanisher, Horizon Scraper talking about keeping his soul on high alert centered towards experimental hip hop, neo-psychedelia, art pop, glitch pop, glitch hop, cloud rap, alternative r&b, abstract hip hop, post-rock, wonky & progressive pop while the 2nd single “Monday” combines folk pop, baroque pop, art pop, chamber folk, chamber pop, folktronica & Waltz reflecting on a relationship that didn’t last. “Dancing Without Moving” has gotta be the catchiest moment on the entire LP balling pop rap, experimental hip hop, neo-psychedelia, art pop, alt-pop, alternative r&b, jazz rap, nu jazz, neo-soul, boom bap & chamber pop into 1 looking at the night sky to copy what he does until “That’s Why” speaks of life not getting any better than it is at this very moment.

After the “I Dream About Sinking” instrumental, we have the distortion gradually increasing over the course of “Natural Causes” suiting the increasing paranoia while “Thundrrr” blends hardcore hip hop, industrial hip hop, deconstructed club, funk mandelão, glitch hop, grime & wonky. “The Great Bakunawa” featuring Danny Brown makes for a breathtakingly industrial hip hop, hardcore hip hop, neo-psychedelia, illbient, abstract hip hop, post-rock & horrorcore collab while the final single “Forgone” divided in 3 parts speaking of remaining through it all. “Casper” by Maruja frontman Harry Wilkinson ends with a melting pot of post-rock, experimental rock, post-industrial, art punk, post-hardcore, space rock revival, nature recordings, totalism, noise rock, poetry, chamber jazz, jazz-rock & noise to talk about death.

“Learn to Swim” starts the deluxe run by throwing it back to the I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You era while “A Little Too Much” puts his range on display with him singing the first couple verses & rapping the final one. “Touch the Sky” feels it it could’ve been placed between “Ruin My Life” & “Godstained” as an interlude but after the “Horizon Scraper” compositional piece, we’re treated to a “Forgone” prelude subtitled “Not Enough” & the “Sundown” instrumental cut. “Burns Down” uses a flow similar to Lucy Bedroque’s except it feels reminiscent of brakence’s stuff aesthetically & the final bonus track “Wind Catcher” excluding the “Godstained” demo happens to be another composition.

Conceptually focused around a lone traveler sailing into the ocean alone pursuing freedom & cosmic understanding with his own self-destruction subconsciously motivating it, Quadeca’s musical evolution in recent memory continues with the most ambitious entry in his discography thus far & the finest of this redeeming trilogy arc. His masterful production goes outside of the box showing influences of art pop, folktronica, jazz pop, folk pop, Bossa nova, chamber folk, lounge, progressive folk, jazz rap, progressive soul, baroque pop, chamber pop, Waltz, singer/songwriter, progressive pop, neo-psychedelia, post-rock, psychedelic folk, experimental hip hop, ambient music, hardcore hip hop, industrial hip hop, deconstructed club, funk mandelão, glitch hop, grime, wonky, illbient, abstract hip hop, horrorcore, experimental rock, post-industrial, art punk, post-hardcore, space rock revival, nature recordings, totalism, noise rock, poetry, chamber jazz, jazz-rock, noise, modern classical, chamber music, totalism, avant-folk, choral, MPB, capoeira, nu jazz & neo-soul coordinated in ways to pull you deeper into the story.

Score: 4.5/5

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Quadeca – “Scrapyard” review

This is the 3rd mixtape from Los Angeles, California singer/songwriter, producer, YouTuber & rapper Quadeca. His earliest output including Work in Progress, Nostalgia for the Now, Bad Internet Rapper & Out of Order were all received negatively as was the full-length debut Voice Memos. The sophomore effort From Me to You proved to be decent & coming off his most beloved offering yet I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You, he’s taking us to the Scrapyard full of material that didn’t make the final version of it’s predecessor to simultaneously fulfill his contractual obligations with deadAir Records.

Experimental hip hop, emo rap, glitch hop, cloud rap, folktronica, art pop, digicore, slacker rock & glitch hop all culminate in the intro “Dustcutter” begging not to be left out in the cold to dry prior to “A La Carte” featuring brakence blending experimental hip hop, emo rap, bedroom pop, digicore, midwest emo, glitch pop, glitch hop, neo-psychedelia, alternative R&B, art pop & abstract hip hop talking about rather being in their heads instead of their partners’ beds.

“Pretty Privilege” brings more of a general trap vibe confused by the compliments he’s been receiving from a woman he initially felt was lying when she called him pretty & trying to get to the bottom of as to why she genuinely feels that way leading into “Easier” fusing art pop, folktronica, neo-psychedelia, bedroom pop, emo rap, ambient pop, bossa nova, alternative R&B, dream pop, chamber folk & glitch pop talking about being in love with a chick who doesn’t feel the same way.

Quadeca steps outside the box in terms of sound on “Even If I Tried” with an outstandingly calculated outro trying to stop himself whenever he’s not feeling like himself while “What’s It to Him?” vulnerably admits his desire to hide a little less & cry more pulling inspiration from bands like The Beatles & Queen to Weezer. We get a solid attempt at hyperpop during “U Don’t Know Me Like That” touching base regarding a relationship that didn’t last while “I Make It Look Effortless” goes back to his roots over a combination of experimental hip hop, glitch hop, digicore, Americana, deconstructed club, industrial hip hop & folktronica.

“Way Too Many Friends” made for an introspectively eclectic pop rap, boom bap, jazz rap, neo-psychedelia, glitch hop, cloud rap, trip hop & abstract hip hop song advising to stop having his bluff called if you wanna make amends with him followed by a repetitive hook while “Guess Who?” expands on the versatility balling experimental hip hop, hardcore hip hop, glitch hop, industrial hip hop, dark plugg, rage, trap metal, glitch hop, wonky, deconstructed club, digicore & beat bruxaria all in 1 to spit braggadocio.

Shoegaze makes itself a prominent influence in the 2 & a half minutes “Under My Skin” has to offer feeling paranoid while “Being Yourself” sees past another person trying to act like someone else & airs ‘em out on it right on the spot. Would be furthermore remised to leave out the instrumental breakdown outro. “U Tried That Thing Where Ur Human” sonically feels reminiscent of Björk talking about being fed up of getting treated as if he’s dirt while the “Guide Dog” delivers a 2 minute folk ballad about the love he has for his romantic interest.

“Texas Blue” featuring Kevin Abstract concludes the tape with my favorite collaboration of the 2 realizing they’ve been masking their emotions throughout the portrayed relationships they’re involved with crossing over Americana, pop & R&B while “perfectly cut scream” starts the deluxe run by running to his hip hop roots tackling the theme of self-confidence & simultaneously giving a giant “fuck you” to the crowd who dismissed his artistic potential entirely because of his earlier output. Most of which he even said himself was trash in the midst of the last album rollout.

What was the original 2nd half of “perfectly cut stream” spins off into the noisy experimental glitch hop cut “like me” boasting that nobody’s doing this on his level while the 80 second “123” talks about having everyone’s eyes on him after counting to 3. “mad at me” heads for a synthpop direction realizing the person he’s addressing doesn’t care if they’re wrong while “1 step program” fired back at an individual tryna take credit in his success. “lifespan” could most likely be my least favorite of the 7 outtakes here with my criticisms having little to do with the instrumental & more so in terms of the half-baked structuring, which carries itself onto the final bonus track “who i am”.

For a collection of I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You leftovers, it’s similar to what Kendrick Lamar did with untitled unmastered. & To Pimp a Butterfly in that the cutting room floor of a great concept album got an equally beloved life of it’s own. It’s themes are focused around the issues Gen Z are facing masterfully combining art pop, experimental hip hop, electronic, glitch pop, emo rap, folktronica, alternative R&B, glitch hop, neo-psychedelia, industrial hip hop, deconstructed club, cloud rap, digicore, slacker rock, bedroom pop, midwest emo, abstract hip hop, ambient pop, bossa nova, dream pop, chamber folk, hyperpop, Americana, pop rap, boom bap, jazz rap, trip hop, hardcore hip hop, dark plugg, rage, trap metal, wonky, beat bruxaria, shoegaze & synthpop.

Score: 4.5/5

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Quadeca – “I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You” review

Quadeca is a 22 year old singer/songwriter, producer, YouTuber & rapper from Los Angeles, California whose early mixtapes Work in Progress, Nostalgia for the Now, Bad Internet Rapper & Out of Order were all received negatively as was the full-length studio debut album Voice Memos. His sophomore effort From Me to You proved to be decent & looks to make a stylistic departure on his 3rd album albeit deadAir Records debut given the contrastingly high praise nearly every teaser has had across the spectrum.

“sorry4dying” desires for his loved ones to heal from his death over an instrumental built around art pop, neo-psychedelia, alternative R&B, ambient, cinematic classical, glitch pop, folktronica, experimental hip hop, indietronica, new age, post-rock, emo rap & deconstructed club whereas “tell me a joke” fuses art pop, folktronica, glitch pop, chamber pop, alternative R&B, ambient pop, post-industrial, progressive pop, post-rock, trip hop & midwest emo to humorously cope with his passing.

He soon enough finds himself in spiritual limbo on “don’t mind me” bringing experimental hip hop, art pop, alternative R&B & neo-psychedelia together to talk about his mother reasonably being unable to move from her son not being with her anymore digging up old photos & looking at his belongings as a way of seeking some sort of closer just before the folktronica inspired “picking up hands” revisits his childhood home as a ghost to discover the repercussions of his death has had on those he cares deeply for.

“Born Yesterday” was my favorite single expanding beyond folktronica in favor of art pop, glitch pop, emo rap, ambient pop, progressive pop, dream pop, indie folk, neo-psychedelia & psychedelic folk of the 2 talking about watching his friends & family suffer leading into “house settling” featuring Danny Brown after the “memories we lost in translation” interlude attempts to have his family join him in the afterlife through a carbon monoxide poisoning as a way of curing his loneliness in the afterlife.

We get a bit of a post-punk vibe on “Knots” talking about walking around with ties around his neck & chest l prior to the songwriting during the piano-heavy “fantasyworld” originating from a poem Quadeca wrote as a kid flashing back to a point in the story when he was still alive. “Fractions of Infinity” blends neo-psychedelia, art pop, gospel, dream pop, progressive pop, emo rap, experimental hip hop, choral, ambient pop, trip hop, alternative R&B & post-rock realizing it won’t be enough to emphasize how he feels until the closer “cassini’s division” becomes one with nothingness.

“song to go home to” starts the deluxe run suggesting the chances of him picking up this individual from their walk home could be the last while the ambient psychedelic folk single “spring summer fall” sings about looking across the house & the baby steps not taking so long. The atmospherically melancholic “Gone Gone” sings about disappearing without a trace but after the “knots” interlude, “i’m not ready for heaven” comes to that very realization over a guitar & an accordion. The final bonus track “new goodbye” reads off as more of a 45 second outro amending his initial farewell.

The self-awareness of Quadeca’s early material mostly being trash was a huge sign of I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You marking a turning point in his career & it does so with a conceptual artistic reinvention. His production embraces the sounds of art pop, folktronica, glitch pop, experimental hip hop, ambient pop, neo-psychedelia, emo rap, post-industrial, alternative R&B, chamber pop, ambient, cinematic classical, indietronica, new age, post-rock, deconstructed club, progressive pop, trip hop, midwest emo, dream pop, psychedelic folk, post-punk, gospel & choral with the lyrics portraying cohesive tale of purgatory.

Score: 4.5/5

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