New Artist Highlight: Beatnik Neon Bends the Guidelines of Each Classical and EDM [Video]
The twin classical and trendy components of manufacturing and composition duo Beatnik Neon’s work are so well-integrated that it’s tough to discern simply how every of their tracks are literally produced and composed. At occasions it appears tracks like “Mild Processing” that includes vocalist Bel Ronin of their newest EP Interstice are working off a classical-style rating, whereas different current works sound like “Blissfall,” launched earlier this yr, lands extra within the EDM/bass music composition wheelhouse. Nonetheless others comply with extra rock/pop construction.
It’s fairly uncommon for an artist to have concept nerds baffled in such a approach, however with Beatnik Neon’s creedo of constructing music with out limits, plainly’s what they’re going for. They simply additionally occur to be proficient sufficient to tug it off. With little or no background info to go on apart from their precise tracks, one can actually solely go on sound design and their very own minimal ideas concerning the challenge:
Beatnik Neon was unintentionally created with sonic freedom. We love huge drums, heavy clear bass and synth with roots from classical instrumentation and a closing contact given by one among our vocal contributors make Beatnik Neon an ever evolving challenge with no limits.
So to that finish, the sound design coming from the duo, comprised of Nolan Farmer and Yann Marc, is just about flawless. The ambient work right here is definitely experimental/drum & bass high quality (although not tempo), whereas the afore-mentioned “huge drums, heavy, clear bass and synth” which has change into a staple in Beatnik Neon’s sound can also be high-quality, each technically and within the feelings they connote. It’s clear that the duo make their very own sounds as properly, as a result of as soon as once more the road are blurred by way of method: it’s inconceivable to inform what’s digitally manufactured and what’s analog, particularly in terms of the drums.
The classical components blended into all of the sound design and digital base are performed so seamlessly that can also be speaks to Farmer and Marc’s manufacturing talents as soon as once more, however what we are able to additionally glean is somebody in that duo can also be classically skilled, if not each. Whether or not a number of the string components in tracks like the economic/film score-inspired “New Daybreak” that includes Germaine LeFevre or the guitar within the halftime “Calm” that includes Luna Bands or “Numb” that includes Vivian Moon are analog or digital is as soon as once more a thriller as a result of sound design round them, however they’re nonetheless superbly composed. Paired with the expert piano enjoying and operatic vocals from LeFevre, it’s clear somebody is aware of their stuff.
Talking of vocals, nearly all of Beatnik Neon’s tracks have a vocal collaboration , and mentioned collaborators are nearly as various as the talents and strategies contained within the music. From Bel Ronin’s eerie, sharp timbre in a number of tracks to Bands’s extra pop fashion in “Calm” to a different classically skilled, albeit extra musical-inspired vocal set from Christine Nicole within the duo’s 2020 album Yorself, Beatnik Neon don’t simply use their vocalists for accompaniment. All of them lend their very own fashion and tones to every observe and contribute to that genre-bending variety Nolan and Marc really feel are integral to this challenge.
If all that weren’t sufficient, there’s a robust visible aspect to a lot of Beatnik Neon’s work, and it appears to be getting stronger. Their observe artwork is laced with the identical components of darkish, mildly industrial components with imagery of the very best high quality. Their observe teasers and newer music movies on YouTube even have breathtaking cinematic high quality and inform the tales of those songs in a approach that makes one surprise if this duo missed their calling as rating composers for movies.
Hardly technically “new,” Beatnik Neon is a challenge that actually ought to have been way more acknowledged for his or her unbelievable work lo these previous 5 years, since they first launched their debut EP, Atramentous Half I: In Darkness Reeling in 2016. Now with much more of a strong sound design, manufacturing and compositional base and literal Tsuruda-or even-Alix Perez-level high quality, right here’s hoping Beatnik Neon catch on in all of the genres they so masterfully mix into their work.
The Interstice EP is out now and out there to stream on Spotify or to buy on Bandcamp together with the remainder of Beatnik Neon’s discography. Take a look at their chilling music movies and visualizers on their YouTube channel.