Oftentimes, one comes across musical projects with art so interesting that it makes the entire experience more visual than you anticipated it to be initially — and vinayvvs’ newest EP, ‘Drowning,’ is one of them. One look at the EP cover, which features what assumedly is a graphic depiction of the artist’s persona / manifestation of his self-perception drowning, coupled with cubist Picasso-esque faces splattered across a bright blue visual landscape, prepares the listener for a kind of sonic endeavor that would be intriguing, and introspective — if the title is any hint regarding the same.
The 19 year old artist from Mumbai, who is currently settled in London, creates an ambient record, first and foremost. There is a cohesive nature to the tracklist, bound by elements of psychedelia-induced rap, trip-hop and cloud-rap — with derivatives of the works of Portishead, Lil B, Young Thug, rearing their heads throughout. With vocal distortions, a soundscape that is immersive, and altering between cadences that are sometimes manifestations of a desi-prototype and sometimes products of the post-2000s trends in hip-hop — the artist tries to construct a portal into his mind, and the process of his personal mythologization — and perhaps the consequent entrapment of it all.
Drowning starts off with Soul Saving, which has an underwater-esque quality to itself — where the artist finds himself struggling with hope, coping with pitfalls, his self isolation — and an honesty that is almost brutal in its delivery. There is a sort of self-knowledge, a self-professed condemnation of the image that he has of himself — and the stagnancy that it imposes on his journey. Similar sentiments are echoed in 25 Lighters — where he borrows the pitched up vocal suave characteristic to Playboi Carti. Even with tracks like apple of my eye, which is more of a switchover to the blaming of a femme fatale that often moonlights in hip-hop albums — there is no respite for vinayvvs, he is always scrutinizing, judging and punishing towards the one victim that cannot outrun him : himself.
The motif of drowning strengths throughout he EP — in Faded, where through a soundscape that one would associate with something off of a Yeat album, the artist croons “Rock Bottom/ Only way is up/ God, reach for my arms” — an impressively vulnerable moment paired with the sound of a gunshot. In Trapped Inside, it almost feels like a reconciliation with the personal submergence, a conflation with the aforementioned rock bottom and feelings of claustrophobic self-flagellation.
What essentially holds the EP back, in spite of all its sonic and lyrical accomplishments, is the nascent nature of thoughts that feel forcefully structured into a style that is more “trendy”. While the immersive production and the introspective lyrics are separately successful elements — together, they manifest as counterintuitive elements to each other. The final output impedes itself in terms of clarity, which alienates a listener when it comes to allegiance — what is one supposed to focus on, which when separated seem excellent on their own terms — mix together to form a more muddled outcome than the artist would have intended? A lot of the artist’s thoughts get lost in ambience, and do not translate into more cognizant ideas that would be memorable.
There is incredible promise in the record, which we know shall metamorphose into brighter, more definitive projects once the artist carves his niche un-reigned by his influences, but driven by his individuality — of which there are very strong doses on Drowning.
