Given my life experience there are like 3 or 4 notions I’ve come to accept as undeniable axioms.
For example, Pizza is the Dog of foods, the snooze button doesn’t work if you only hit it once and, most importantly in relation to this post, Swedes have pop melodies in their DNA.
20 year old Baba Stiltz has been releasing music since 2009, as dreamy-folkypop Bethlehem Beard Corporation and as producer for post-rap “sadboi” phenomenon Yung Lean.
Stiltz’ latest project is a stunningly emotive solo album called, “Total“.
Released on Axel Boman’s Studio Barnhus label, “Total“, cleverly but not annoyingly so, encompasses a wide range of sounds and genres that have influenced Stiltz.
However, unlike other albums by young artists that work as a kind of ‘this is your life’ of vibes, each of the tracks on “Total“ have aspects of Hip Hop, Acid, Ambient, Psychedelia in equal measure.
It’s a tribute to Stiltz that he finds the balance and executes it so well.
Hints of Tangerine Dream, DJ Shadow, Plaid and Discovery-era Daft Punk permeate but never overshadow Stiltz’ clarity of vision on “Total“.
It’s one of those rare debut albums that sounds like the work of someone who knows exactly what they’re doing, because they’ve been doing it for years. Which he has been.