Taquwami – Blurrywonder
The initial impressions I had of Blurrywonder, the first release off of the newly established collective, Void Youth, was one of uncertainty. Tokyo-based Taquwami’s sense of aestheticism is extremely Internet savvy, conceptualized in a way where who it is trying to appeal to seems to be extremely apparent.
Blurrywonder came off as a sort of polished and highly preconceived musical package for the ever-hungry blogger community, and it was hard to hone in on its integrity.
After all, Void Youth, which also consists of Toronto-based Hollow Pigeons and Virginia-based Ruddyp, have all had their fair share of Internet hype, much of it associated with their given age and appropriation of trap music and minimalist Eastern-inspired melodies, aligning themselves to Internet culture by labeling their music from anywhere to “trillwave” to “chillwave” and all other variations of “wave.”
Blog culture seems to heavily focus on details such as this.
At times it almost seems like apart of an agenda. A competitive system of networking which passively spreads music around, adhering to no specific genre or taste. It’s the sort of thing that makes some music listeners very weary and assuming that they may have heard it all before.
But despite so many things building Taquwami up to being just simply another “Internet musician,” the music of Blurrywonder often feels like it does come from a place of passion.
Although at times it does feel a bit imperfect, a bit unpolished, everything is pointed towards the right direction and Taquwami is making a conscious choice to stand out amongst his peers, despite any similarities that can be noted to his music.
For instance, the abrasive, yet melodic “cut-up” sound clashing with funky arpeggiated synth lines on songs like “Ohhh Lover” displays the aggression and aestheticism of artists like DJ Newtown, and would no doubt fit amongst the shelves of Maltine Records.
Another highlight, “Attraction,” despite it’s light “trap” influenced percussion, pitched-up chipmunk vocals and an ominous dark bass line, hits the right emotional tier, as to proving that Taquwami can produce a sound that is perfectly effective for his specific approach.
Blurrywonder is what it describes, a hazed out imprint on the digital music world, so sonically similar to its counterparts that it may possibly be overlooked. But strangely, it can’t be overlooked. It’s execution is done with precision and despite maybe just being another blogger’s flavor of the week, it deserves much more appreciation than that.
Taquwami, like his other label mates, all have a lot of time to mature and perfect their sound and sort out their influences to stand out clearly from the rest of the game. For Taquwami, maybe that ability cannot be heard for sure now, but there should be little doubt that he can do so in the future.
Taquwami- Attraction
Deep link to Release Page: [VY-01] (paid release)
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