Where do songs like this even come from? Occasionally you’ll find outrageously good songs from lesser known producers that blow up to monumental proportions and this track is the epitome of that scenario. I pride myself on having a wealth of knowledge in the semi-underground electronic music community, but this situation called for a bit of sleuthing. The featured artist, Eden Knight, is prolific enough. The vocalist from Melbourne has been featured on some well-known tracks in the past. One of my favorite songs that she contributed to is “Human” by Sandstrom. I encourage you to check that out and you can even pocket it courtesy of a free download from the artist.
The production artists are a bit more mysterious. At first glance, it isn’t clear if “Stst, Squill” is one artist or two due to the syntax. The work is actually a partnership between the two artists, Stst and Squill. As with most early-career collaborations, this one was sparked by close proximity and familiarity, with both artists hailing from Los Angeles. Both artists produce music separately, but they do have a previous collaboration entitled “Only Now.”
Squill and Stst are still experimenting and finding their sound, but nothing they’ve made so far sounds quite like “Galaxies.” I’d resolutely classify it as drum & bass because of the percussion backing and floating mid-bass. And they’ve done a terrific job with the song. Everything about it screams experience and professionalism. There aren’t any major hiccups that I can note, which is why it’s so shocking that it has come from two relatively undiscovered producers. They clearly have an arsenal of talent and this track, which has been featured on Wonderlust, should help gain them some exposure.
I hate to publicly dissect songs because I don’t want to detract from your listening experience. So if you don’t want the song tainted by my perspective then look away. Perhaps it would be best to stop here, take a listen to the song, and then return for my analysis.
The first is a negative which is really a positive. The ambient tones in the build (starting around 0:58) provide a lot of… well, ambiance. But it has been destroying my car. As those tones start to build in power I can feel the drivers in the rear of my car start to vibrate everything around them to the point of creating obnoxious rattles. This is the sign of a good song when you want to blast it, but my car is taking a beating as a result.
The second drop was odd until I had the opportunity to really analyze it and listen to the song on different headphones/speakers with different audio profiles. With my colorful car and desktop speakers the vocals sound like, “With you far away, cross galaxies–” because the built in equalizers emphasized the first bass sweep and drowned out the vocals, cutting off “with me.” On cheaper earphones or reference headphones, the “with me” comes through clearly, but I wish they would have increased the loudness of that decisive pair of lyrics or had it offset from that first beat so that it shined through a bit more.
Let’s make this a compliment sandwich and end on another positive: this song kills. It sounds like drum & bass to me, but you can call it whatever you like. Regardless, there’s no denying that it builds an incredible atmosphere of smooth bass matched with silky vocals and sharp percussion. These three elements maintain a respectful distance from each other and let them all shine with the brightness of a galaxy.
