The ambient chillwave production of the bi-coastal project, Drinker, drifts in your ears and around your mind like a cloud of smoke. Their new single, Even If I Know, is no exception. It’s the sound of memories, a slow burn, utilizing the power of time to rock you into a meditative state.
Aaron Mendelssohn & Ariel Loh challenge listeners to pay attention, their individual use of song-writing & production (respectively) melding into an entrancing contrast between mood and movement.
The melancholy tonality and vocals are reminiscent of young James Blake & RY X, the beat – a hypnotic mixture of trance and house – drives like the best of Lane 8. It sets a subtle mood, then slowly reveals more and more of its dynamic terrain. With patience comes reward, and this song will take you on a journey…if you let it.
Meaning becomes clear through the music video & lyrics. The video opens onto a symbolic, geometric, robotic, post-human wasteland…like a glimpse into a potential future out of our sci-fi nightmares. An ever expanding, consuming concrete jungle, all in black & white. It’s terrifying, yet the relentless (heart)beat makes it almost a peaceful descent into madness.
We’ve come here to get lost in a sonic wasteland, similar to the picture painted by the lyrics:
Under the sun
Air has got so warm
The day that it comes
Atmospheres away
It’s an exploration of detachment and resignation, somehow peaceful in its acceptance of transiency,
I’m only here for a smile
Here for a day
How can I enter your memory
Before I leave the other way
We know you’re all looking for new ways to entertain yourselves, and this song is repeat-worthy – each listen will give you something new. Gotta vacuum the house? Drinker. Want to contemplate the impending doom of global warming? Drinker. Gotta finish a design on Illustrator for a deadline in 2 hours? Drinker. Crying over your ex? Drinker!
