Alex E’s Passionfruit is quite possibly the most unusual and unique release to emerge this year. There are two threads of familiarity to the track – one is the fact that it does seem to follow the standard verse-chorus set-up of mainstream music, and the other is the guitar solo that sees things to a briefly passionate end. Apart from these, the whole thing is in its own world entirely, seeming to have been crafted from pure and free creativity. For this reason, it captures your attention fairly quickly; and is incredibly easy to recognise once it’s crossed your path.
Passion Fruit begins in a manner that feels as if things might progress and evolve to be bigger, more full sounding. In place of melody is an instrumental riff, which the featured vocal seeks to meet rhythmically as it offers up the repeated lines…
I see you, Look at me
I play games, Hide and seek
Following these verse moments, distortion comes in to take the place of delicacy, and the song’s hook is undoubtedly a moment of heightened intensity and resolve when compared. There could well be a deep sense of artistry to the whole thing that you just don’t stumble upon all too often. On the other hand, it could easily just be a fun song that’s loaded with character and originality. I was reminded a little of the likes of Deer Hoof.
From a production perspective this is a fairly minimalist piece that’s been recorded well – the vocal sounds genuine, not overly effected by electronica and still coming through with those intricacies and human dashes of emotion and softness that help you connect with the individual behind it. The guitar solo at the very end of the track works towards the same goal. As suggested, you only need to hear this once to recognise it later – and to want to tell someone about it; a job well done in terms of reaching a wider audience.
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