WILDLIFE! returns to Mixpak Records with “Ballads”, the continuation of a series that began with “Patterns” (2016) and “Anima” (2017). Drawing from a wide array of influences, from experimental electronic music and ambient to rap and R&B, the record’s palette wavers between grimy gray-on-gray and overblown kodachrome.
Collaborators Ian Isiah and GAIKA float through almost unrecognizably on “Frontline” and “IX”, while elsewhere, heavily processed vocal samples surface from digital hiss, scuffed-up synths, and gritty drum shards.
Hazy and kaleidoscopic, “Ballads” blurs the lines of sonic worlds, while drawing connections between past and present, experimental and pop.
