The first release from Blackbird Blackbird and AVIDD’s new label, Prime Ordeal (possibly titled after a mixtape of the same name), is candy coated deep internet banger Trapped IRL by Hitmane. The four-track EP starts with “Real”, truly made from the best stuff on earth: it revolves around a Tegan & Sara sample pitched up to near-nightcore highs (though thankfully resisting nightcore bpm’s), accompanied by deft beats, an upbeat toy piano melody, and an assortment of associative samples from Soundcloud-ubiquitous sounds such as gun-loading, and a smattering of “hey / hey'”s to what sounds like either Kirby or Ness powering up in Super Smash Brothers 64. The rest of the EP keeps up with the pitched-up samples and quality beats, taking the disembodied hyper-smooth romanticism of vaporwave and injecting it with some much-needed life energy and some downright club flourishes. The production is gleeful but there are bittersweet moments too, “Miss U” swooning on the anxious refrain “did u hear a word / that i said” and “Over U” occupying a sort of glowing melancholy.
Trapped IRL exists on Soundcloud and NewHive, where it’s accompanied by art by Terrell Davis, David Marinos, and Molly Soda.
