For a slew of reasons ranging from its lack of marketing to its impeccable production quality, “Chasing The Golden Hour Pt. 1” might be the most impressive release yet from GRiZ. Released for free with little fanfare or noticeable build up, “Golden Hour Pt. 1” took us by surprise, and we may not be the only ones. It’s just so different for GRiZ, and we can’t get enough.
With “Golden Hour Pt. 1” Grant has diversified his catalogue by making tracks which achieve a completely different vibe from the rest of his music. He appears to be relying on soul, jazz, funk and hip-hop more than ever before. On “Say It Loud” he began coding his own synth lines, meaning that the glitchy, synthesized noises in his music were literal creations of his own from scratch. Yet the synthesizer is noticeably absent from much of “Golden Hour”, and instead instrumentals made up of drums, guitar, keys and horns take center stage.
The first track for example, “My Love Will Follow You” features Russ Liquid. Though neither he nor GRiZ get deep with their synthesizer play, they instead craft a soulful jam led by horns and kept steady by keys. The single “Summer ’97” with Muzzy Bear takes a similar approach, as does “Cabin Sessions” with Exmag and Eric Bloom. Forgive the dramatics, but these tracks suggest GRiZ is taking his production to an entirely new level of sophistication.
The final song on the release, and our personal favorite “The Moment Seizes Us”, does feature the wild and crunchy synth lines which we’ve come to know GRiZ by. Ironically the EP (if we may call it that) ends with the dirtiest and heaviest synth lines on the whole release, possibly suggesting that whenever it comes out, “Chasing The Golden Hour Pt. 2” will be heavier and more dance oriented.
Given all of this, we could not be more excited for Grant’s upcoming tour. Not only will he be busting out this new music, making his live sets even more diverse and exciting, but he’ll be playing in London, Paris, Berlin and even Geneva. Much of the electronic music we love originally came from or was inspired by creations from the UK and Germany. GRiZ took that music and fused it with classic American forms, and now in an ironic turn of events he’ll be bringing the finished product back to Europe to blow some minds and get the funk down. Now THAT is a cultural export we can be proud of.
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https://twitter.com/mynameisGRiZ
https://soundcloud.com/griz
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