Premiere: Prettybwoy ‘Upward Current’
Tokyo’s Prettybwoy returns with Flore’s POLAAR with two continuum-contorting club dazzlers
Prettybwoy will release a new EP, ‘Upward Current’, via Flore’s POLAAR label this week. Listen to the title track below.
Returning to the Parisian label for the first time since 2018’s ‘Parallel Lives’ EP, the Tokyo-based producer artist follows a prolific run of releases on his own Bandcamp and a breakout 2021 album for Shanghai’s SVBKVLT label with two tracks that push his hybridised club style to the next level. With clear references to the luminous Night Slugs catalogue and the weightless grime of Different Circles, Prettybwoy’s take on electronic music marries elements of garage, footwork, d&b and deconstructed club with an impeccable balance of gloss and grit.
‘Purify’ blends new age-y mallet percussion and chillout-zone synths with distorted kickdrums that pound like a jackhammer. Speaking about the track, he said: “I think that when we purify something, clean and dirt are melting in the same result.”
‘Upward Current’ skips with a lighter step; its nimble garage beat and arcade machine melodic swirls keep things bright and swinging even as a bubble cannon bassline hits all your limbs at once. ‘Purify’ gets an acid-dipped ‘n' bass-charged refix from Bristol’s Delay Grounds, while the title track becomes a dazzling d&b sprint in the hands of remixer rRoxymore. Deliriously good stuff all round.
Buy ‘Upward Current’ here.
