Inspired by glitchcore, jazz-pop singer Genevieve Artadi, and the mumblecore favorite Frances Ha, 16-year-old musician zayok wrote last September’s In elsewhere about his relationships with his parents, his girlfriend, and love interests that withered to nothing. His beats applied the vocabulary of FX spam and EDM to voluptuous, so-pretty-it-hurts R&B. Maybe this music is something only a young person could make, before they start self-censoring and hardening to the world. Fresh off a surprise cosign from Aespa member Giselle, zayok is one of the leaders of an amorphous digital scene that includes gunk and sydney runner, whose music iterates on carbine-y wonkiness to form a new kind of balladry halfway between SoundCloud IDM, rap, and voice memo.
In “Oh! Give me something to believe in,” one of Zayok’s loveliest songs to date, his voice darts across the mix with a scaredy-cat shiver, dodging footwork clatter and frayed strings. A relationship misfire turns into life-or-death devastation; he seems to take pleasure in the way the pain gives him hope. “You say friends, to me they’re sparks/No way I’m all alone endlessly/I’ll play my part to feel your touch, I’m home,” he sings, so passionate it’ll make you crave the feeling. In the last 15 seconds, he hands off to his friend Aria, whose curlicued voice echoes his worries as the music reaches a climax of chops and thudding 808 rolls. Everything is so durably constructed that the digital clutter and emotional discomfort feel weightless.
For Zayok
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