No Rome - RIP Indo Hisashi EP

No Rome
RIP Indo Hisashi
2018
Spotify

It's not often I review four track EPs, but when I saw the 1975 as a feature on this new record from No Rome, I just couldn't resist. Digging a little deeper you find out that Matt Healy (the 1975, vocals) found the Philippines based artist, signed him to the 1975's label and began working on music. Before to long this EP was announced with Healy and George Daniel, also from the 1975, producing. The 1975 vibes are all over this record totally separate from the song they feature on. It's that wormy, slick, millennial asshole who thinks He's much hotter than He looks on paper. There are so many versions of this record where the highly sexual, the cursing or the trap drums would have you rolling your eyes but instead you find yourself falling right in. "Seventeen" a silly song about young love should feel like pandering and grasping far to hard for the youth vote, but the song is so honest and open you never feel like you are being sold a bill of goods. No Rome's music firmly sits in this modern pop era where the line between hip hop and pop becomes more and more blurred. There are plenty of hip hop elements here, something the 1975 have employed well in their career, but He certainly never goes as far toy start rapping or something like that. It is the occasional drum pop, or back beat that gives it this super bop that is straight up hip hop to the max. "Saint Laurent" tows the line but lands with such pop delight you find yourself smiling just listening to the track.

The record is short and feels like it's very of this exact second. Yet it is that attitude that gives it a real transient vibe; I don't mean like the drifter riding rail cars, but more the handsome yet mysterious foreigner who sweeps into town and is gone before you know it. This music doesn't feel like it is meant to stand the test of time like the greatest of the greats, but it also feels like that's ok too. "Narcissist" is the real star of the show here though and it's not surprise it's the one that the 1975 have a credited feature on. The song wiggles in and out of the early 90s bop and once the beat drops it becomes this totally fun dance extravaganza. The choppy vocals and samples absolutely make the track. It's hard to say how much of this record is No Rome and how much is the 1975. Many of their newest tracks are tapping into a similar vibe as this record so I wonder if this is No Rome pushing this sound or the other way around. For what it's worth the record still totally claps. RIP Indo Hisashi is a really great first look at this new artist, and only time is going to tell where He can take this thing.

7.8 out of 10