#trickystoop

[animalfluidz]

im like, wanting to associate less with furry music bc of how some folks are obsessed with clout and clout chasing. ppl rag on cassidy the civet, but some of the folks dunking on her are exactly like her. its just disheartening. on the cool side, the musicians that arent clout obsessed are incredible sweethearts.

[junelalonde]

I'm glad I get to share some album news with y'all!

"Headjack" will release alongside a limited cassette run, courtesy the wonderful folks over at @trickyStoop

Dates and details soon!

[luuurien]

GABUISLOST - partners

(Indie Pop, Alternative R&B, Cloud Rap)

Gabe Rapoza's second album of the year is an even stronger and more varied listen, exploring ebullient dance-pop, dreamy indie rock, and his usual drum 'n' bass and trap blends. The wider range of production he brings to the table here makes partners another quick, but electrifying listen.

☆☆☆☆½

The pull of Gabe Rapoza's music as GABUISLOST is how it blends the bright, bubbly sound of modern alt-R&B and hip-hop with the comfort and familiarity of contemporary pop and DIY production, songs that are energetic and catchy yet sound like they could have been made by your roommate in their free time. It's with this balance of energy and intimacy that his first two albums, Some Songs a Hyena Made and friends, turned out such lovely and charming bedroom pop songs that had enough bounce and personality to them to stand out from the pack. His third album partners, the second of this year and a companion piece to friends, is his strongest outing yet, using the DNA of friends' sound (hell, S0LARDOG even did the cover art for them both) and refining it with sweeter production, stronger performances, and more confidence overall that gives a bolder and brighter presence to the music. partners is its own entity, but by jumping off the solid starting point friends built, Rapoza carries his music more assured in himself than ever before. Comparing the two of them is a surprisingly efficient and understandable way to lay out all the things that friends improves on compared to its predecessor, most clearly of all being Rapoza's forwardness as a vocalist and producer. The fuzzy, lo-fi drum 'n' bass tune say you love me that opened up friends is completely flipped on its head with NEMESIS!, partners' first track that also utilizes D'n'B in a faster and forceful fashion, Rapoza kicking things off with a fireworks show you can't pull yourself away from. partners is a show of composure and determination more than anything else, Rapoza now with a greater understanding of his skills as a producer and songwriter and using it to the fullest on tracks like something to hold, the album's most sensitive song with its downtempo drumming and light-footed vocal melody with a sound like little else in his discography, or even the mellow take on The Postal Service's The District Sleeps Alone Tonight whose more direct take on synthpop gives the song a delicate, flowery scent entirely his own. Nothing here is too far off from what he's done in the past, sure, but it's in how he structures these songs and the slight changes to production here and there - the deep house throb of GIVE LOVE A CHANCE! and glossy dance-pop kick of reality surf (a surprisingly fun and faithful recreation of the song off Bladee's 333) - that partners is able to take on such an appealing shape, with more defined peaks and valleys to it than the more strict and rigid sound of friends. It's also just a ton of fun to listen to, even without thinking of it in terms of its relationship to friends. These songs are more outgoing and glowing than anything Rapoza's put out in the past, the trap-pop bombast of LEARN TO LET GO sugary enough for his graceful hook while having enough acridness to it for Breezoo Tha Goat to throw down one of the album's best verses, and the blend of cloud rap and D'n'B on DON'T MISS IT a few songs later linking the sedative nature of both genres and making one hell of a party drug blended like this, playing with the usual GABUISLOST formula and seeing what happens when he mixes and matches them on each track. There's still softhearted, introverted indie pop with tracks like the scuttlefuzz-written crunch and something to hold; there's the crooning cloud rap of LEARN TO LET GO and BAD ENDINGS that brings the heavier side of Rapoza's music with conviction and verve; the more experimental side of his music with the house-infused GIVE LOVE A CHANCE! or the trap/dancefloor D'n'B crossover DON'T MISS IT who bring a refreshing taste and unique perspective on his music - Whatever makes it  click for you, all of that and more are brought to the fullest on partners. Its short length does leave you wanting more, to see what Rapoza could do with a longer runtime and more tracks working towards an end goal, but the developments he makes on his sound throughout partners tease the potential for a more widescreen project in the future, even if it hangs out at around the same runtime as its predecessor. partners does just enough with its new ideas to make it a strong step forward from friends, and Rapoza has the production ear and songwriting abilities to make it all lovely to listen to. By far his most solid and well-rounded listen to date, partners gently expands on what Rapoza's previous two projects cultivated while letting the album take an exciting new direction. He's nothing if not consistent, and the wider range of styles he uses to his advantage throughout partners makes sure that the music never becomes stale or uninteresting when there's so much he's doing with his sound. At this point, Rapoza knows what he's doing, and by letting go of the reserved nature that always left you wanting more of him, partners is more engaging, impactful, and flat-out fun than anything he's done in the past. He's quickly become one of the most enjoyable new names in the indie electronic scene for a reason, few out there able to compete with his honest and warm-hearted take on pop and electronic subgenres and the incredibly unique and thoughtful ways he swirls them together with his velvety production as the canvas. At its core, partners is another killer collection of songs that continue developing on Rapoza's gorgeous sound, and that's the only thing he needs to win you over completely.

[luuurien]

PVPPYBRETH - mt. stupid

(Indie Pop, Lofi / Slacker Rock, Indie Folk)

PVPPYBRETH's low-key indie pop is one of the year's most heartwarming efforts. Put together with love and a knack for atmosphere, mt. stupid's noisy folk tunes are imbued with a personality of their own through the ways each instrument is filtered through the fuzz. It's an easy listen, but that doesn't make it a bland one in the slightest.

☆☆☆☆

Sometimes, simple joy is all we need. We seek it out in the late nights being out with your friends, the thrill of going to get dinner somewhere a little more expensive than usual, the wash of warmth on your skin laying in bed next to someone you love. It's the easiest desire for us to express, yet it's often too difficult to live in the moment when they happen. We look on them with deep, sepia-toned nostalgia, falling back into memories kept locked in our minds until we need them the most. PVPPYBRETH, the musical project of multimedia artist Jeepersedd, asks us to fully exist in those moments and not let anything get in front of that. His debut album, mt. stupid, contains those feelings in the delicate, fuzzy hands of homemade indie pop. The calling cards of the late-2010s bedroom pop revolution are all over mt. stupid; you can hear it in the electronic drum patterns and quietly-sung harmonies of wolfman that likely were put together in the late hours of the night, the soft fingerpicked melody on haunted, but it stands apart from the many other albums with a similar sound with its immense levels of release and short bursts of uncontrolled energy. Minute-long highlight michael cera runs off the same chord wrecked by noise and distortion over a timid, shuffling rhythm, and the results are nothing but electrifying. I can't think of a song that bleeds tensity like this one does off the top of my head, and it's a hilariously catchy tune to boot (the drawn-out groan of "Because he's a celeeeebriiiity" is so much fun to listen to). It's not trying to hide the fact that it's a pretty off-the-cuff record, and that honesty helps keep mt. stupid fun all throughout. Even at its bleakest, mt. stupid is still an album you can cozy up with on rainy nights. Still, mt. stupid isn't a one-note listen: more traditional guitar-and-drums indie rock pops its head in for back-end highlight bill elliott and the wooden synth tones on fortuneteller baba give the song a dirge-like feeling around the acoustic guitars and melancholy drumming. Everything fits into this dreamy, late-night world, but you're getting to see more of it than you might expect from the looks of the album. That does lead to times where it can feel like the album's nonchalantness gets the best of it - the mixing is burdened with having to balance recording fuzz and (more than likely intentional) blasts of noise throughout, and it can overtake the chilled-out nature of tunes like piano keys to the point where the charm of mt. stupid is lost in it, too. The same can be said for astronaut, where every piece of it sounds like it was recorded for a different purpose before being stitched together. The rugged, voice-memos like vocal performance doesn't do enough to put Jeepersedd's emotions at the forefront of things, and the lack of expression of the other instrumentation leaves it in an odd place throughout the flow of mt. stupid. That's part of the album's charm, though, and something you have to accept to get the most out of your time with it. Jeepersedd craves all the same things we do: love, intimacy, understanding, and the only thing that sets them apart from everyone else is his willingness to put that out in the open. Much too often do we reserve these needs, be it out of fear or nervousness and the like, but mt. stupid offers an example of putting those feelings out to exist in the world. You might not find resolution, and I get the feeling that Jeepersedd hasn't found it for themselves quite yet with how much of a sunsetting finale goodbye song is, but what's happened by releasing them into the wild is the possibility that those thoughts may find peace. It's a little nerve-wracking to let things free that way, but the liberation from keeping your thoughts inside your mind is an indescribable exultation.