Like shaking a snow globe and watching each fine, shimmering snowflake pirouette inside the orb as if by magic, deer park and Ivy Knight’s new single ‘Black Cat’ is a gripping, transportative capsule that enswathes the dreamy and the metaphysical in a sturdy, temporal silhouette.
Serving as the pair’s first release via trailblazing tastemaker label Scenic Route (releasing the likes of thredd, BLACK FONDU and Nourished By Time), the track builds on a musical alliance between dually NYC-based singer songwriter Knight & producer deer park. Here, they trade the hazy, lo-fi acoustic ambience of their earlier collaborations with a newfound clarity and intention, maintaining a throughline of rejection towards attainable, polished perfection in favour of texture and idiosyncrasy.
The simple, unadorned piano-led musical structure of ‘Black Cat’, married with its strong, almost hypnotic rhythmic pull, draws from the same school of artists steering the underground towards more transcendental, minimalist experimentalism; think Astrid Sonne or Raisa K. This, married with deer park’s muzzy cloud rap aloofness and Knight’s Trish Keenan-esque vocal mysticism, makes for an incredibly slick and tasteful synthesis of artistry.
Photo by Caroline Waxse
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