Zodiac produces the entire first Weeknd record and this is the motherfucking thanks he gets? While Abel gets radio play and cocaine orgies on glass tables, Jeremy Rose remains arguably the most underrated producer in music. Ask your average Weeknd fan if they know his name and they’ll give you a blank bovine stare. Admittedly, that might be the molly wearing off, but most don’t know that Zodiac was the architect for his sound.
I didn’t believe it initially, but his self-titled EP from last year still earns heavy rotation in this parts and is recommended for those that liked the Weeknd but prefer something 75 percent less date-rapey. Adam Wray reviewed it and then interviewed the Rose, so no need to reiterate. His latest track is “PE1,” available for free download. It splits the difference between the spectral 4 a.m. peat bog Burial vibes and the aqueous float of Flying Lotus.
So it almost sounds like a Nosaj Thing song, except that it doesn’t. The sampled “eh, eh” sounds almost give an inverse Jiggy-era Puffy feel. His ad-libs were supposed to up the energy, these make the song more eerie. All it needs is a flipped Wu sample saying “introducing the Zodiac killer” and we’ll be good to go.
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