Netherfriends & Yomí • 808s and Harpbreak
Netherfriends has migrated to Austin, TX for the time being, but we still like to talk about the top hat artist known to spend his summers in Chicago. Last summer, for example, inside of his Windy City bedroom (before he lived in a nail factory), he recorded an album with harpist and singer Yomi, who was covered earlier this year for her debut EP.
“Highway traffic sounds like the sea, why won’t every pretty girl fall in love with me?”
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Handling vocal duties together, Yomi and Netherfriends both handled the instrumentation. I imagine Yomi added harp melodies to instrumental loops by Netherfriends and, also, Netherfriends built around already crafted harp loops from Yomi. Regardless of the process, the result is 808s and Harpbreak, an enjoyable album with an enjoyable title. We heard tracks “DMT and Whiskey” and “Don't Fuck with Me on Halloween” prior to this drop, but the rest are newbies. There's a song called “Quantum Shit” and there's a song with John Walt of Pivot Gang. “Harp on the Beach” might be a personal favorite. Complete with vocal distortion, vocal loops, contagious hooks by Netherfriends, and Yomi spitting bars, this album hopefully gains more traction as Yeezy Season (hopefully) comes to an end. If this strikes your fancy, be sure to spin Yomi's project, 33 Strings. And while you're at it, Netherfriends has seventeen albums on his Bandcamp. Jump into those before you inevitably bump into him down at SXSW.
“Take a break / take a breath / smoke a spliff / ride the lake with me””