Wow, it’s been more than one year and a half since my last piece about laxcity. It does feel strange. When an artist is so present in my life with their music, I often lose track of time as I don’t feel the need to check out anything else besides their albums and songs. Nor their social accounts, nor their announcements. It’s a level of relationship where it’s just me and the music.
That’s why I was a bit worried when I found out that, while I was spending my long quarantine afternoons vibing with his previous works ‘Purity’ and ‘Catharsis‘, laxcity wasn’t having a good time. As stated during the EP launch, “my experience (with quarantine) wasn’t that bad, but my creativity with music was affected the most […] I had all the time in the world to write timeless music but the truth is that I never finished anything“. It’s not hard to understand how frustrating this situation can be and I’m pretty sure that, in a way or another, a lot of us experienced the same. Luckily, laxcity is among the ones who have found a way out of this apathy tunnel. Hard times call hard measures, and in order to bring back the magic, he fought against his own perfectionism, just writing whatever came to his mind.
Now, are you kidding me Joshua? This is what pops out when you let yourself go? You make it seem so easy to be a genius.
To be completely honest, when the first single of Disconnect was released I wasn’t so euphoric. Usually, whenever EMIA is involved in an electronic production it’s clear that is going to be a hit, but this time I wasn’t able to get along with their collaboration. In ‘The Way That I Do’ I didn’t feel any alchemy and the two styes never get to blend together as they did, for example, in ‘Just Try’. Somehow laxcity’s production and EMIA’s vocal line sounded detached and emotionally far from each other during all the track’s duration. But I’m glad to say that my skepticism lasted very little. Despite what I have just said still holds true, now I have five other magnificent tracks with which amuse me.
“Through this EP I embraced creating whatever I want, however I want.” Forgive me for quoting laxcity’s words once again, but this is probably the very best way to sum up Disconnect. All the tracks start in what can be described as a “very laxcity way”, but they all hide little surprises, unexpected twists and creative flashes that take the final result away from our expectations, keeping the whole EP fresh and adventurous. It can be a sudden change of tempo, a peculiar use of vocals, some synth oddity, you simply never know what you’ll find after the next beat.
Diving into Disconnect is exactly like diving into a warm bathtub. You feel entitled to let everything go and just enjoy the moment and the sensation of temporary freedom. Your head is finally empty and the most disparate thoughts are free to roam without having to follow the rigid logic of rationality, productivity, performance. I personally love how Laxcty’s tracks often exceed four minutes, lengths that, combined with their hypnotic paces, amplify this feeling of ecstasy. ‘Falling For You’ is the pinnacle of this phenomenon. This six-minute Burial-like opus is a masterpiece that can help you reach Nirvana if listened at the right moment (again, I highly suggest you try with a hot bath). Since naming my favorite tracks off the EP would simply mean copy and pasting the tracklist, instead, I’m gonna leave there the order in which I personally like to listen to it: ‘Grateful’, ‘Southbound’, ‘Book’, ‘Drive’, ‘Falling For You’.
You can stream and purchase Disconnect here.
