Uwmami - Mellow Dramatic
Irish MC Uwmami released “Mellow Dramatic” February 8. It follows “Candy Crush” and “Insomniac,” per Uwmami’s expressed blueprint to drop a new track every two weeks for the first few months of 2019.
Uwmami
She explains “Mellow Dramatic,” saying, "The instrumental encapsulates a sunny winter's day, holding the optimism of summer, but tinged with the realism of the freezing cold. I sampled and manipulated my own voice to give different, conflicting voices or mindsets arguing with each other and taking over at different parts of the song (being mellow vs being dramatic) - the vocals are erratic whilst the guitar and drums stay mostly constant. The switch up in the pre-hook is a sort of rewind to more raw summer memories."
Pensive lyrics, full of lingering emotion, demonstrate a quixotic approach.
“White shorts / Red socks / Yellow paper sticky on the memories you keep in a box / Melodramatic / I'm switching a lot / Darling I've been slipping / I've been falling / You still crawl into my thoughts / So I can give it time x2 / That energy's just wasted making up your mind / I always leave it on the wayside / Makes me feel alright.”
The instrumental encapsulates a sunny winter's day, holding the optimism of summer, but tinged with the realism of the freezing cold.
“Mellow Dramatic” opens on austere synths oozing liquefied metallic colors. The vocals exhibit Uwmami’s proclivity for filtered tones of tantalizing textures, as if floating in and out on waves of sonic pressure. A syncopated beat provides the rhythmic force, as a surfacing droning synth appears in the distant background, gently pressing.
Dominated by bent, skewed harmonics radiating a skintight mechanical/industrial ambiance, the music projects fizzes of trance-like savors, almost devout in flavor, yet pervaded by remote nuances of uneasy tension. It’s dazzling music, raw with a gleaming visceral aspect despite being electronically sifted.
Who is Uwmami? Here’s what is known: she’s from Dublin City, Ireland, where she attends university studying sound engineering. A DIY-er, she writes, produces, mixes and masters, and sings. Citing influences like The Internet, The Clash, Pizzagirl, and Choker, her sound avoids resemblance to any of them. In fact, her sound is totally, completely sui generis, a bit like minimalist Cardi B, but even that analogy fails because her sound is so unique. Yet it’s hecka yummy and eerily haunting.
Without a doubt, she’s one of my favorite hip-hop artists. “Mellow Dramatic” confirms her impressive talent and evolving creativity.
