Spooky Black: Leaving EP

By Isaac Miranda • 10 Sep 2014 in Review

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TOKE AND PINT PAST MIDNIGHT
The first time ‘Without You’ popped onto our screens and into our plugs, we weren’t entirely convinced that this white kid from Minnesota was indeed Spooky Black. It was just flat-out abnormal. Something about the lacklustre home video production quality just threw us off. It didn’t stop the entire industry from taking notice of the internet sensation though – and he’s back with the Leaving EP.

The essence of The Weeknd’s productions joins him at the helm of this project – Doc McKinney. Famed for shaping together the preliminary vibe of the flag bearer of this new take on r’n’b, McKinney carries his expertise into Leaving with perhaps a little less success. He and Spooky journey through a conduit of lost romance, overthinking and hip hop influences (‘HotelSixNine’, featuring SolomonDaGod) alongside multifarious collaborators make for a fascinating trip. It’s constructed with a late night aesthetic – best enjoyed with a toke and a pint past midnight. That being said, don’t go into this expecting too much. It’s tastefully minimalistic, and well-layered, but nothing completely groundbreaking as it doesn’t leave much impact.

In fact, we probably enjoyed the introduction (creatively titled ‘intro’) a little more than the rest of the set – you can’t blame us for thinking that the bar would be raised. Curiously enough, the curiously-titled final track, ‘dj khaled is my father’, is probably the only other track that we found as captivating as the start. It’s pleasant as a whole, but nothing memorable really stands out. The kid’s got potential though, we’ll give him that. This is, after all, still a free EP.

LISTEN TO: ‘dj khaled is my father’’
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RATING: 3