– featured image courtesy of derrick koch –
ness nite should already be on your radar. vanessa reliford’s output this year has been nothing short of outstanding, and the minneapolis producer and singer has now bottled that momentum in the form of nite time, her debut ep that was self-released digitally on monday. the project’s half-dozen tracks are a mixture of both familiar and unexplored territory – joining “yes,” “reverse,” and “lilith” are a trio of previously-unreleased songs – but its sequencing is paramount, resulting in a cohesive, dusky soundscape that retains an enormous amount of elasticity.
positioned at the forefront of nite time is “sigh,” a track of such caliber that a truncated live rendition performed this spring already read as one of the strongest singles of the year. the finished version arguably doubles down on this claim; the titular sighs are evident in both reliford’s cadences and in the flat-out exhausted state her lyrics convey, but it’s her haunting wordless, melismas that glue the track together: eerie interludes punctuated by rubbery bass interjections and a hypnotic sample, reversed and perpetually looped.
the final minute of “sigh” is purely instrumental, a chopped and screwed coda that’s as much a nod to reliford’s production prowess as it is to her capacity for patience. after such a saturated introduction to every facet of her aesthetic, the end of “sigh” allows nite time a crucial moment to breathe, to collect itself before fully submerging. listen below.
Dimestore Saints 