A Black Hole Bloomed In My Living Room

Skate Key and Iblss “Rootwork”

The lyrics of “Rootwork” fixate on geography and death, and both overlapping in catastrophes and aftermaths. Skate Key senses ghosts all around him – relatives whose absence reshapes the family dynamic, communities built on the legacies of the long gone, traumas that get passed down from people he could never know. It’s a morbid song but there’s a touch of serenity in Skate Key’s soft rasp, and grace in the way he bows out of the song to let Iblss’ gentle woodwind loop run out for a few measures at the end.

Go to Iblss on Bandcamp.

Kiina “Recall”

“Recall” evokes a vaseline-on-the-lens melodrama in the way it bends and blurs what sounds like a vocal pulled from a mid-20th century ballad – not sure what, probably shouldn’t narc on it either way. It feels both melancholy and placid, particularly as the beat settles in and the music drifts out into jazzy keyboard noodling. It’s more of an interstitial than a full song, but it conveys a lot of feeling in just over a minute.

Buy it from Bandcamp.