WaxFeet: Blues and Pinks (Self Released)

When Patrick Brede and Damon Danielson decided to give up the lyrics and mess with the instrumentals back in 2019, they did so with a heady mix of music-making chops under their belt. What WaxFeet has now become is a diverse and delicious antidote to the turbulent decade we are currently living inside.

Not that they had any idea what we would be facing back then. They were just done with pervasive negativity. And they would pull out all the stops to fill our heads with a cushioned utopia under the banner of Chillhop, and electronic exploration.

And the duo’s debut LP does just that. Twinkling strings in tracks like Nylon give way to spacey electronic dreamlands. Jazzy samples and popcorn electro a la Goa 2AM engorge your soul with a soft space to dance. Full of mystique and mastery.

This is what they do best. Stinky Weed fills your head with a smokey concoction of brass and lo-slung breaks. The undulating baseline of Do I Know You swirls like raspberry ripple into creamy sweetness, a shimmering tide of electronic reverberations.

It is expectant, full of promise. Delivering a soft and expansive world to explore. Brede and Danielson have laid many pathways through, though you might just want to sit at the edge and take it all in.

And who’s to stop you? There is always time here.

Setting the dessert menu off with Cookies At Sunset, this sweet treat struts through your avid mind. Rolling drum-loops and staccato hats create a liturgy, an offering to the gods of the Weekend Sundae: a reclined daytime party, with stellar electronic music, dancing and cocktails. Often centered round an azure blue pool.

Blues and Pinks In The Sky plays with the weather, forming an incredibly spacious and moody backdrop to the luscious landscape. It’s mission: to showcase harder edges, a brittle backbone holding up glitches and bubbling base. It’s lo-fi brutalism hints at dark undertones, but never lets the sun set on the bubblegum pink and blue hues.

Raw is the power of WaxFeet, and they use it to devastating effect. A rich array of styles and samples litter the undulating scenery of this rich world. Brimming with soft sweetness and opulent avenues to explore—texturized with notes of drama, just peeking through.

From the rich velvet of AOK—smooth and sumptuous with crunchy baselines that will shake you to the core, to closer Stinky Weed—a soft landing, preparing you for rest and recuperation. Not one avenue of this record will fail to bring you joy.

WaxFeet are the antidote to our current predicament. Get yourself some medicine. 4/5