Hi everyone, Quadthony Boytano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. And it's time for a review of this new Quadeca record, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper.

This is officially the fourth album of singer, rapper, songwriter, producer Mr. Ben Lasky, aka Quedeca, an independent artist whose wild evolution over recent years has been talked about on this channel before. In fact, it's hard not to talk about because it's rare you see someone go from a YouTube rapper to critically acclaimed and legitimately cutting edge musical conceptualist with a fluid command of multiple genres. But that's exactly what Quedeca has proven himself to be over the course of his last few albums.

The impressive From Me to You, the heavily narrative I Didn't Mean to Haunt You, and also last year's Scrapyard, which, sure, in a lot of respects was just a bunch of extra material that wouldn't have fit on a more cohesive album. And the record, yeah, was also not his grandest statement ever. But still, this was definitely, in my opinion, his most adventurous project to date when it came out, in terms of him being able to effectively fuse pieces of hip hop and emo and indie folk with psychedelia and glitch pop and electronic music too, and not have it sound tacky at all.

And on Vanisher, Horizon Scraper, Quedeca seemingly is stretching that versatility even further while also digging deeper into the whole concept thing with some pretty deep and personal themes.

Now, this whole LP starts with the ending in a way, I would say. "No Questions Asked", which is this lengthy, curious, mostly acoustic meditation with some exotic instrumental touches here and there. A lol a LOT of multitracked vocal harmonies too, plus all these repeated lyrical refrains of "I'll be there when no one is," which at the start of an album like this might make you think, what the hell does that even mean? Who he saying that too? Why is he making this promise? And the significance of this moment isn't really clear until you've actually gone through the entire record and also listen to the closing track, which is pretty much led by Manchester post rock and post punk outfit Maruja.

The very, very, very last moments of that song are ended with just sound effects of waves crashing on the shore, which is how the record opens up with the initial seconds of "No Questions Asked". So in effect, the record does effectively loop back into itself, not only thanks to this, but the reprise of certain vocal melodies that are incorporated into "No Questions Asked" too.

But yeah, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper is far from the first record to do something like this. In fact, it's very Tarantino of him and not inherently a bad move, especially for a record that feels so inherently cinematic, which I will get into more. But what I want to say is, personally I'm not all that crazy about this move, especially since the way this intro track is arranged and written, it feels like Ben is taking just a massive, bright, hopeful victory lap at the start of the album. And the meaning of what that victory lap is just doesn't really make sense until again, you finish the entire record. And I don't really think the ending at the beginning thing works all that well unless you're hitting the audience out of the gate with something shocking or enticing or something that foretells something that we're gonna be sit waiting to just see more information revealed on now.

I should also say this record has been released in tandem with a Vanisher, Horizon Scraper movie, which obviously reinforces a lot of the themes lyrically on the album. And yeah, I think all of this is respectably ambitious for Ben. I just don't really think "No Questions Asked" works all that well as a tone setter. To me, the track feels like a daunting obstacle to overcome in order to really get to the meat of the album. In most cases, as I've been listening to this project, I've just been tempted to skip right to "Waging War", which I think functions better as a first track, as it conjures a pretty mysterious and curious sound.

I just want to travel down the dark rabbit hole this album is constructing thanks mostly to its entrancing synth arpeggios and surreal effects, rap sung vocals. The whole thing really goes through a winding, multi phased progression and the meaning of it all doesn't really become clear until the final rap verse on the track where Ben really starts to dig into these feelings of choosing life over death and present for himself.

And again, given the final line about death and the abrupt cutoff that happens on this track, I just feel like it works better as an interesting cliffhanger to bring us into the rest of the record.

Following this, we have the quaint "Ruin My Life", which is this lovely little acoustic ballad in 3/4. I love Ben's vocals on this one. The chords he uses, the way he treats the production. It makes the whole song sound not just like a song, but like an artifact, something of a bygone era. Which fits because a lot of the themes on this track deal in youth and being hopeful that you'll find love and you're just kind of generally looking forward to the journey life is gonna take you on.

However, it's not all that easy. Love doesn't just fall in your lap, you also have the prickly issue of mortality to deal with. And also, being in control of your own destiny can be kind of difficult and is voiced through lyrics like "might have to ruin my life to make it mine." Meaning maybe you could follow a path where things are more or less set out for you, but going out on your own and actually doing your own thing is going to involve some fuck ups. But even those mistakes, after doing them, at least you'll know that you lived your own life on your own terms.

The following track, "Godstained", for the most part though, keeps things moving in an acoustic direction and brings in some R&B influence between the melodies and chord progressions too. The gorgeous hook on this track is wonderful. I'm also liking the summery woodwinds. And this has to, hands down, be one of the smoothest and catchiest tracks Quadeca has put out so far. And this is one track where most especially the visuals in the Vanisher movie tie right into the song. And I won't dig into that too much, but you know, we have all these references toward a bottle and messages traveling away from where you were and hoping to connect and understand and learn.

After this we go into a very, very, very seamless transition into "At a Time Like This", which builds on a lot of the same messaging but with more of a hip hop flavor with some great beats, lots of multi tracked vocals, also more woodwinds, too. And that's not all – because the track gets more grandiose as it progresses, because things really fill in with some horn, well, swirling arpeggios too. It really does make this album feel like a movie because on multiple tracks on this album you are getting these really beautiful big budget soundtrack level palettes of instrumentation.

"Monday" sees Quedeca going in full baroque pop mode. I think this is the most regal, wondrous, and touching ballad he's ever put out, and he really starts digging into some other themes throughout the record too, that deal in aging and also getting bolder and braver when it comes to love interest that he's infatuated with making a move wearing his heart on his sleeve. The numerous references and nods toward clothing throughout the track are pretty clever too.

"Dancing Without Moving" continues a lot of that wonderful baroque instrumentation, but once again we see Quadeca swinging back in more of a hip hop direction, but again doing so in a way that feels true to the genre while simultaneously I can't really name any contemporary artists who are riding and producing instrumentals that sound quite this psychedelic and sparkly. There are some pockets on the track where I wish his vocals were a bit more raw or naked or up front, but I'm still massively impressed with how well the beats and flows groove on this track without really succumbing to all of the pretty layers of instrumentation surrounding them. Meanwhile, the lyrics on this track dive further into the idea that Quedeca is just on this solo journey we could call life, and he's working through regrets and rejections.

And this is built upon with "That's Why" where we get some serious Mac Miller vibes on his rap verse here in the opening, as he's feeling pretty downtrodden against all of these layers of strings. The writing is just peak existential crisis. But then the song breaks into this chill feel good acoustic track where Quadeca doesn't just accept the obstacles that life has to throw at him, but he begins to, I guess, kind of find joy in them, and thinks this is the best life I'm gonna live, so I might as well make the most of it after this.

"I Dream About Sinking" is a very heavy interlude passage, something I would be fine with in concept, especially considering how stark of a vibe contrast we're getting with the final moments of the album. But I just feel like this track takes up so much space in the track list. And after this, the following "Natural Causes" already feels like a motif of sorts, with the grooves and refrains on this cut already being very repetitive and entrancing. Again, for whatever reason, it feels like we're getting an interlude, a transition on top of an interlude, and a transition.

Now, as I said, in the final moments of this record there is a vibe switch and that is ushered in with "Killer Thunder", which is this nightmarish experimental rap cut that feels like one of the weirder songs from one of Quedeca's past couple of albums, but like turned up to 11 and just harsher with shoutier, more oversaturated vocals squealing, and distorted sound effects. And lyrically too, he feels like he's almost on this godly power trip, which is most definitely a change of pace from a lot of the moments on this album where he feels more or less like insecure or afraid of where his life is headed or just kind of, you know, not knowing where things are leading and there just being so much anxiety around that.

Another major highlight on this record is this "The Great Bakunawa" track featuring Danny Brown, which in a lot of ways is a callback to Quedeca's last major collaboration with Danny on his I Didn't Mean To Haunt You album, where Danny also appears for a feature. And it's a feature where he was very much rapping in character, and he is doing the same here from the standpoint of a mythical moon eating dragon. Quadeca serving as the main character, the narrator, the person whose point of view we're experiencing. All of this through his interaction with this dragon pretty much brings a lot of the album's larger than life, godly, and self affirming themes to a head. And it does so in a truly epic fashion that makes this thing feel even more like a fucking movie.

And then after this, the album finishes off with two of its most massive moments, one of them being "Foregone", which is this lengthy, sad, emotional piano ballad with a great sway to it. It's a beautiful moment, which pretty much relays the sentiment that all Quadeca can do at this point is just remain, just exist, just live through it all.

And then we have the actual closing track here, "Casper", which essentially is like just a Maruja song with some additional vocal bits from Quedeca that echo melodies that we hear – again – on the "No Questions Asked" opening track. And it is just this incredible multi phased experimental post rock art punk rager with the same fiery, intense performances and vocals that we've come to expect from this up and coming band. If you are in fact hip to what they've been doing over the past few years, which if you've been watching this channel, you very much should fucking be.

And yeah, I mean, even though it's not like as much a Quedeca song as any other moment here, it's still a really powerful moment that ties in very seamlessly with everything else on the record. Even if we are getting like a very different kind of sound and songwriting style on this closing track, because the lyrics once again do tie into all of the oceanic and nautical themes of the album really well.

And the final moments of the track are just one of the craziest things I think I've ever heard on an album. Not only because of how powerful and loud and crushing Maruja sounds collectively as they're performing together, but there's this just crazy mind-blowing sonic effect going on where, you know, it sounds like you're hearing the band perform, but then your head goes underwater and the, you know, water entering your ears – it sort of makes it sound kind of distorted and like muffled and like you're not actually hearing it. But then your head comes back up over the water and you're hearing like the band play and the music's at full volume and it's clear and then your head goes under the waves again and then you kind of lose it and it just kind of like goes over like, you know, through that over and over and over and it just like makes for this just crazy ending, crazy fucking ending.

The way that Quadeca sonically explores water and ocean and all of that shit on this album... like not only thematically, but again, just in the way that the album and the songs here sound is just really thoughtful and in some respects groundbreaking, which just really left me impressed as I walked away from this LP.

Now there's, you know, some things that I have reservations with the album and there's a lot of stuff that I love. I mean, I think this record, without question, contains Quedeca's best songwriting and best production ideas to date. Definitely his most ambitious album. But simultaneously I do feel like his ambitions get the better of him or cause him to basically muddy the sequencing of this album a bit here and there with tracks and passages that pad things out unnecessarily or are padding things out in the sequence of it. All that I would say is kind of the major drawback of the album.

But still, with that being said, it's very much an album I loved and see myself coming back to numerous tracks from, just based on how mind-blowing the music and production are and just how well-written the songs are too. I'm feeling a light to decent 8 on this LP

Anthony Fantano, Quedeca, Forever.