In a world where everything is bought down to the lowest common denominator, props to Mykii Blanco for envisioning the audience for Café Paradiso with so much specificity. “It’s not a point A-to-B record, or a pre-game record” he explains, saying his latest album is made for ‘Artsy kids, cosmopolitan aesthetes to sit alone in a café and work on crafting the life of their dreams or just make sense of it’.
That’s not you would imagine a massive demographic by size, but then again they’ve rarely let themselves be taken for granted, a string of mixtapes and EP’s leading to work with amongst others Charli xcx, Michael Stipe and Jamila Woods. Café Paradiso follows time in Switzerland studying for a master’s in fine arts, but it’s as much an itinerant lifestyle that informs it thematically, long term producer Drew Lustman (AKA Falty DL) once again forming shapes out of the stylistic chaos.
There’s a refreshing – and occasionally satirical – honesty about the ideas of sex and transience, offered without much subtlety on the likes Spread For Me, Butt Sex and Fuck as Friends with Blanco diving in and out of lyrical sleaze to various after hours beats. Lustman’s influence is heard more in quieter moments like the drifting ambience of Foxes and closer God Is Alive’s pulpit and flute friendly confessional; these are rare moments of introspection however, and the cool kids will probably take them, along their Latttes, to go.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 