Hackney's John Glacier swiftly follows the genius 'Like A Ribbon' with an even more dazed set of cloudy, soft-focus rap daydreams, using her nonchalant flow to cut thru the nervy, quietly lo-fi beats.
"Guess I want it my way," Glacier shrugs informally on 'Grands!', sounding awkwardly relaxed against a backdrop of quieted gunshots, baroque piano and knotted trance risers. Her straightforward, no-nonsense delivery is exactly what drives her assertively into her own lane - she makes ostensibly swaggering modern rap, but peppers her bluster with vulnerability, delivering punchy rhymes with shiftless eloquence. It's a balancing act that's particularly impressive on 'Duppy Gun'; its predecessor was littered with collaborations that helped Glacier duck from the spotlight, but she's full in focus here, letting her drawl drape around the slow-motion mutant trap inversions like silk over a statue.
Her voice barely passes a hoarse moan on the languid 'Steady As I Am', melting into the dictaphone-recorded guitar loops and brittle beats, and even on lead single 'Cows Come Home' - the EP's most upfront track - Glacier sounds as slickly unbothered as Martina Topley-Bird did on 'Maxinquaye'. Slurring over a jerky mix of triplets, dancehall snares and pulverized breaks, she commands attention, the friction adding a level of tension that tears it away from familiarity. "I've got a poster of myself in my dressing room," she quips offhandedly on 'Poster', half-singing while an iLoveMakkonen-style pinprick beat rattles against nursery rhyme synth chimes - and we fully believe her.
View more
Hackney's John Glacier swiftly follows the genius 'Like A Ribbon' with an even more dazed set of cloudy, soft-focus rap daydreams, using her nonchalant flow to cut thru the nervy, quietly lo-fi beats.
"Guess I want it my way," Glacier shrugs informally on 'Grands!', sounding awkwardly relaxed against a backdrop of quieted gunshots, baroque piano and knotted trance risers. Her straightforward, no-nonsense delivery is exactly what drives her assertively into her own lane - she makes ostensibly swaggering modern rap, but peppers her bluster with vulnerability, delivering punchy rhymes with shiftless eloquence. It's a balancing act that's particularly impressive on 'Duppy Gun'; its predecessor was littered with collaborations that helped Glacier duck from the spotlight, but she's full in focus here, letting her drawl drape around the slow-motion mutant trap inversions like silk over a statue.
Her voice barely passes a hoarse moan on the languid 'Steady As I Am', melting into the dictaphone-recorded guitar loops and brittle beats, and even on lead single 'Cows Come Home' - the EP's most upfront track - Glacier sounds as slickly unbothered as Martina Topley-Bird did on 'Maxinquaye'. Slurring over a jerky mix of triplets, dancehall snares and pulverized breaks, she commands attention, the friction adding a level of tension that tears it away from familiarity. "I've got a poster of myself in my dressing room," she quips offhandedly on 'Poster', half-singing while an iLoveMakkonen-style pinprick beat rattles against nursery rhyme synth chimes - and we fully believe her.
Hackney's John Glacier swiftly follows the genius 'Like A Ribbon' with an even more dazed set of cloudy, soft-focus rap daydreams, using her nonchalant flow to cut thru the nervy, quietly lo-fi beats.
"Guess I want it my way," Glacier shrugs informally on 'Grands!', sounding awkwardly relaxed against a backdrop of quieted gunshots, baroque piano and knotted trance risers. Her straightforward, no-nonsense delivery is exactly what drives her assertively into her own lane - she makes ostensibly swaggering modern rap, but peppers her bluster with vulnerability, delivering punchy rhymes with shiftless eloquence. It's a balancing act that's particularly impressive on 'Duppy Gun'; its predecessor was littered with collaborations that helped Glacier duck from the spotlight, but she's full in focus here, letting her drawl drape around the slow-motion mutant trap inversions like silk over a statue.
Her voice barely passes a hoarse moan on the languid 'Steady As I Am', melting into the dictaphone-recorded guitar loops and brittle beats, and even on lead single 'Cows Come Home' - the EP's most upfront track - Glacier sounds as slickly unbothered as Martina Topley-Bird did on 'Maxinquaye'. Slurring over a jerky mix of triplets, dancehall snares and pulverized breaks, she commands attention, the friction adding a level of tension that tears it away from familiarity. "I've got a poster of myself in my dressing room," she quips offhandedly on 'Poster', half-singing while an iLoveMakkonen-style pinprick beat rattles against nursery rhyme synth chimes - and we fully believe her.
Hackney's John Glacier swiftly follows the genius 'Like A Ribbon' with an even more dazed set of cloudy, soft-focus rap daydreams, using her nonchalant flow to cut thru the nervy, quietly lo-fi beats.
"Guess I want it my way," Glacier shrugs informally on 'Grands!', sounding awkwardly relaxed against a backdrop of quieted gunshots, baroque piano and knotted trance risers. Her straightforward, no-nonsense delivery is exactly what drives her assertively into her own lane - she makes ostensibly swaggering modern rap, but peppers her bluster with vulnerability, delivering punchy rhymes with shiftless eloquence. It's a balancing act that's particularly impressive on 'Duppy Gun'; its predecessor was littered with collaborations that helped Glacier duck from the spotlight, but she's full in focus here, letting her drawl drape around the slow-motion mutant trap inversions like silk over a statue.
Her voice barely passes a hoarse moan on the languid 'Steady As I Am', melting into the dictaphone-recorded guitar loops and brittle beats, and even on lead single 'Cows Come Home' - the EP's most upfront track - Glacier sounds as slickly unbothered as Martina Topley-Bird did on 'Maxinquaye'. Slurring over a jerky mix of triplets, dancehall snares and pulverized breaks, she commands attention, the friction adding a level of tension that tears it away from familiarity. "I've got a poster of myself in my dressing room," she quips offhandedly on 'Poster', half-singing while an iLoveMakkonen-style pinprick beat rattles against nursery rhyme synth chimes - and we fully believe her.