Album Review: Close Eyes To Exit - KRTS

Close Eyes To Exit is the second full length album from KRTS, and a worthy successor to his debut album The Dread Of An Unknown Evil, a release that made my shortlist for best of the year. Where his debut album felt like a taughtly wound piece of urban clostrophobia, Close Eyes To Exit is a broader body of work that encompasses a wider range of styles. 

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Within that range we have some of KRTS' most upbeat moments. White Priveledge is more carefree than the title would suggest, and perhaps that is the point... Upbeat drum & bass rhythms roll along whilst KRTS conjures a warm, uplifting pattern of chords. My Head Is Jumpin' deals with the mental traps and emotional turmoil that shape us all from the inside without those on the outside even necessarily noticing. The track features Charles Larson and Tito Ramsey of the Brooklyn based band Legs. Glittering production and deep rumbling bass gives the song a sense of momentum, the whole thing sounding like it is spinning around your head. 

In contrast to this is Serve And Protect, a dark and angry rebuke of a media that normalises violence against black people, Mad Flows' vocals painting a picture of disillusionment and frustration. 

The instrumental cuts provide plenty of the sophisticated, soulful sounds that KRTS excels in. In Your Head is warm and choral, rhythms and scattered handclaps giving it an organic and earthy feel. Marriage Is Between Lovers is cinematic and romantically free of cynicism. In contrast If This Was Your Child, the album's closing piece, feels like a veiled threat - pitch black aggressive bass and distortion envelopes the listener before abandoning them in silence. 

It is clear KRTS has poured a lot of emotional anguish into Close Eyes To Exit - even the title sounds like a desperate attempt to escape the frustration of modern living. In contrast to The Dread Of An Unknown Evil, this album feels harder to trace and pin down - that previous album did so much with so little time that it couldn't help but be very focused. On his second album proper, KRTS' ideas are bigger... They just don't quite come together to make a relatable whole. 

Close Eyes To Exit is released on Friday through Project: Mooncircle. Listen to White Privilege and Serve and Protect below.

Album Review: Two Words - Rain Dog

Rain Dog is one Samuel Evans and Two Words comes from his own desire for variation and the impact of disperate inspirational sources. Whilst Evans apparently never considered himself a conventional songwriter in the form of lyrics, here he attempts to blend more established and traditional elements of songwriting with cutting edge electronic production techniques.

Two Words' narrative comes from the structure and flow of the album rather than the snapshot and scattergun lyrics that pepper its length. Starting with foundational elements that inspire him - Tom Waits, Joni Mitchel, Ella Fitzgerald, old movies - Evans builds entirely new work from these samples.

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Two Words - Rain Dog

The album packs distinct tonal shifts against a consistently constructed dubstep styled context. Two Words is modern and urban, yet takes in that which is not. Opener Felicity, featuring Bigson, is theatrical and almost sounds like it belongs in a futuristic take on the classic musical number. Other moments are deeper and tighter - Broken's dub backing providing some heavy legwork for intense soulful vocals, capturing intense R&B that feels heightened as a result of the surrounding contrast.

Highly textured in nature, Rain Dog's music unfurls itself in front of the listener in ways that continue to feel unexpected. Watch Over's laid back vocals and jazzy piano keys unravel in a moment, catching the listener unaware with their unpredictable humanity. Two Words is compact and focused, containing moments of beauty and intrigue. And it's not a bad start to 2014 at all.

Two Words is out now on Project: Mooncircle, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link].

Album Review: The Dread Of An Unknown Evil - KRTS

The title of KRTS' album might be one of my favourites of this year. It completely captures the sense and feeling of these sounds and yet you don't realise it until your ears are already enclosed and trapped by KRTS' sounds. It's a sense concern and uneasiness, building to paranoia. The Dread Of An Unknown Evil. Irrational fear, in other words.

On his debut album KRTS builds soundscapes based on the artists and styles that have influenced him. This is an album that takes the R&B and contemporary soul of The Weeknd and Frank Ocean and piles on more fear and alienation. It's an album that embraces silky vocals one minute and abstract electronic soundscapes the next.

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The Dread Of An Unknown Evil - KRTS

The album opens with 'Something New', a sonic security blanket to the aching vocals of guest star Jon Hairston. Finger clicks and steal drums create a a subtle yet complex background to Hairston's words. The music may shift uneasily beneath the weight of the content yet it comes up strong, an undeniably great start to any album. 'Fire' gradually beckons in the album's more instrumental moments with stark piano chords working in relay to build melodies with KRTS' synths.

It is KRTS' own mother Stevee Wellons however, appearing on 'Your Eyes', that marks out exactly how ambitious The Dread Of An Unknown Evil is. It is a dark, introspective and epic electronic ballad, both terrifying and uplifting.

The deep, dub influenced melodies of KRTS' debut album may come from the same place as Burial and and The Weeknd, but he takes the experimental production of the former and filters it through his New York palette. The result includes the more instantly emotional and obviously personal lyrics of the latter.

Regardless of the background to this album it's an achievement. For a debut album from a relatively unknown artist however it's more than that - it's staggering.

The Dread Of An Unknown Evil is out now through Project Mooncircle, available from Amazon.co.uk on LP or, for just £5.99, MP3 [affiliate links]. Check out the snippet preview via Soundcloud below: