Frannie B & xskarma released the dark trip-pop single “Judgement Day” on the 9th of December from Oxford, UK.
“Judgement Day” is an ambient spacey electronic song, filled with haunting vocal melodies, echoey bubble synths, and a heavily swung drum kit.
The first thing I noticed as I listened to “Judgement Day” are the grabbing arhythmic percussions at the start of the song. At first, listen, I couldn’t discern the quality or type of the sound and immediately had to replay the first few seconds. I later found that these percussion hits are the same drums that are used in the rest of the track, heavily filtered and with added effects.
An echoey synth that sounds like falling drops of digital water in a closed space through thick air.. was the second element that grabbed my attention also in the first few seconds, right after the aforementioned percussions. The sound is hypnotising and truly visual.
The vocal melodies and arpeggiated synths make up the memorable melodies in “Judgement Day” as they move up and down erratically and with an implied sense of hesitance that will make you feel serenely lost in deep space.
“Judgement Day” is a deep exploration into sound design and songwriting that merges trip-hop and pop into this new and unique genre I’d like to call trip-pop, and isn’t that how all great genres were born?