Anxiety made pure with Petite Noir
The King of Anxiety EP outlines the kind of beauty that aches. I connect to it instantly. It reminds me of my state of self, the surety of identity and the loss of living when a moment bypasses you. It tells me to be on top of my anxiety instead of giving into it. It breathes when I forget to and moves when you think it cannot.
Yannick Lunga is accountable for his progress. On top form, he steps it up with his diverse use of voice. In his former electronic project Popskarr, the music overpowered his vocals, rather adding to the music instead of enhancing it. Petite Noir is in another ballgame. Now the music is a supplement to his vocals. Some of his vocal arrangements are reminiscent of Kele from Bloc Party, with a chilled edge and croaky attitude.
“Chess’’ is pure. There’s something so refreshing about the tone, or maybe more the mood, of this track. Yannick Ilunga showcases, much like every track, but especially so in this one, the variety his vocal chords possess. From deep reptilian scales of darker pace in the foreground to softer echoes and whistles in its experiential flow, I imagine the studio time as gentle and detailed as that of a live recordings of a FKA Twigs experimental live set, transient and fragile, in each sound it makes.
“Shadows” seems to be breathing in another era while introducing its contemporary clash of electronic pop functionality. Its simplistic drum beat arrangement partners well with the slow ambience of the strings instrument.
There is certain strength to its production in “Till we ghosts”. It could easily stand alone as a single. With more use of electronic activity, the track has managed to conduct its different elements in a push, pull format. The ghoulish backtracking vocals and synthesised phonic sound work together to form a dance pop tune, feeding into substance at points and circumstantial instability the next.
And then we are introduced to “The fall”. The production of said track has a basic algorithm, which complicates the immediacy of the genre breakdown. Think chill wave meets melancholic downtempo with layers of subdued gospel/ contemporary R&B compositions. The music is very now. It has been released because we are ready for it. There are moments when some of the production reminds me of Dev Hynes from Blood Orange, easing into a sub category of style. Its mixture of music and voice is sophisticated, with no limits as to where the EP will expand to.
