Slow Motion Fantasy, the debut EP from Nnic, is a strong release, exploring deeply nuanced topics in a thoughtful yet provocative manner.
Yurn’s electric production and Nnic’s impressive word-painting combine across three tracks covering themes of nostalgia, yearning and frustration. Despite this political and specific niche, what is striking about this EP is its accessibility and familiarity, as Nnic challenges “the slow outdated attitudes found only in cushy suburbia”.
When You’re There opens with electric and spacey anticipation. Nnic excels at contrasts, placing fluid vocals with forward-moving drums and glittering countermelodies. The overall effect is pacey and ethereal, whilst maintaining a sense of intimacy and coyness. Yurn’s richly-textured production provides a solid ground on which Nnic’s lyricism rests.
Nnic conveys a sense of longing as through lilting, downward moving word-painting on the line “When you’re there”, repeated endlessly with new line endings (“When you’re there, I’m reminded of what matters/When you’re there, I know exactly what I have to offer/When you’re there, there’s so much more I have to discover”). Even with the stripped-back ending, echoes of the previous excitement remain in one’s ear, due to the organic growth and momentum built across the track.
Where When You’re There is forward-moving and grounded, Chase Dream is fragmented and spontaneous. Although the production appears disjointed at first listen, it’s definitely not directionless. As with the previous cut, it is clear that effort has been made by both Nnic and Yurn to refine this EP at the granular level, with the complex production remaining in this track in a different format to the previous.
As Nnic effortlessly navigates dynamic swells in her vocal, the music enters a swirling, dream-like state of fantasy and wonder. When it’s time to come down from this high, Nnic lets us down gently, as her utterances of “Time to let me go” drip through the music like paint on a canvas. Alongside the blurry diction and reverberance, the effect is mesmerising.
Slow Motion Fantasy brings together elements of the previous two tracks in a sparkling, reverberant haze of triumph for the culmination of the EP. The faster BPM creates earnest determination, as the low tessitura voice melts beautifully into the rich production. Yurn noted that he wanted the production to be “playful”, which paves the way for Nnic’s highly political ideas about what it means to life the “good life” surrounded by “unprogressive ignorance” in suburbia. The pacey energy of the production combined with Nnic’s slow word setting highlights the frustration surrounding the topic at hand.
Score: 4/5
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