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Hometown: Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The lineup: Ryan Hemsworth (music, production).
The background: We haven't done a comparative study or anything, but Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth would appear to have quite a lot in common with hip-hop go-to guy Michael Volpe aka Clams Casino. He may not have an alias, but like Volpe he's in his early 20s and much in demand by rappers who fancy a little woozy/hazy with a side order of slurry/blurred (he's even got a track called Slurring that sounds like someone ODing on cough syrup). So far Main Attrakionz, Shady Blaze and Deniro Farrar have called upon his services while Grimes, Frank Ocean and the brilliant Danny Brown have been spreading the word.
And the word is: chill-trap, a term we've seen used at least once to describe Hemsworth's fusion of chillwave and "trap" rap. Some of the tracks on his Last Words EP, such as Overthinking, are prettily ambient, with a psychedelic vigour worthy of A$AP Rocky's Peso. Others such as The Happy Mask Shop, with its choral samples, have a spiritual heft that suggest Hemsworth takes this stuff as seriously as DJ Shadow, who spoke recently about (t)his brand of musical collaging in religious terms.
Not that Hemsworth is going to be spending too much time in church: his ideal musical partners include Danny Brown, one of our favourite new rappers of the last couple of years and a man with novel things to say about the pope. We'd pay good money to hear what effect Hemsworth's box of tricks would have on the surrealist Detroit rapper's Pac Blood.
Hemsworth grew up playing video games and watching horror movies, and – according to an interview with Fact Mag – he says he searches through "weird music and soundtrack blogs" for inspiration. He wants to be free to variously "tackle a soundtrack for a movie, make a song for a pop singer and then a 'chune' to play out in the club". He cites as influences Hudson Mohawke – one of the most acclaimed recent exponents of the mad mosaic – and Aphex Twin: you can hear elements of the latter's seminal Selected Ambient Works 85-92 in the production of Last Words. He's also as into Radiohead as he is the Wu-Tang Clan. "I heard the voice of Ol' Dirty Bastard," he recalls, "and knew what I needed to know as an adolescent on his search for truth and art," he said to Fact Mag.
A former singer and guitarist in a rock band, Hemsworth refuses to be hemmed in. His first release, No Plans, was featured in Spin magazine's Top 20 R&B albums of 2011. He's prolific, too: he quickly followed up that 12-track collection of divinely sludgy, chopped and screwed soul and R&B concrete with A Way and Kitsch Genius, both of which are completely different again. Then he worked on the Hyperbolic Chamber Music, a collaborative project with NYC clothing brand Mishka that saw him helming a 22-minute cut featuring 26 different rappers from across America. Now there's Last Words, an EP of instrumentals that is bound to be anything but his final "utterance". "I'm trying to put a whole bunch of feelings into under 25 minutes," he says, "in a way that can work in the club, bedroom, car, or wherever it's listened to. That's what I want, a bit of everything. Brightness, darkness, positive, negative, quiet, loud." Clams who?
The buzz: "Sit, listen and lose yourself in the brain of Ryan Hemsworth" – respect-mag.com.
The truth: He makes Rustie sound rusty.
Most likely to: Remix Danny Brown.
Least likely to: Remix Danny Kaye.
What to buy: The Last Words EP is out now on We Did It.
File next to: Rustie, HudMo, Clams Casino, Actress.
Links: wedidit.bandcamp.com/releases.
Tuesday's new band: Laura Mvula.
