Quadeca - Vanisher, Horizon Scraper
“Through it all, you are the one that remains”.
Every new Quadeca studio album has seemed to showcase a new and improved version of the 24-year-old Los Angeles native as an artist. Every new project since his 2019 debut LP Voice Memos has progressed significantly in terms of maturity and general musicianship. And, despite how good his third album I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You was, his fourth LP, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper, released on July 25th via X8 Music, takes arguably the biggest leap forward of his career so far.
Vanisher, Horizon Scraper is, above all else, a journey. It is a story of an adventure, a voyage into the unknown, with all of its ups and downs, shortcuts and obstacles, triumphs and tragedies. The whole album is interlaced with an aquatic aesthetic, brought to life by the large, reverberating mixes and the occasional ambient nature sounds that can be heard at points throughout the record. This spaciousness and scale perfectly give off the feeling of being lost in a limitless wilderness of restless water and uncharted territories. The psychedelic musical passages and distortion add to the mystery of the atmosphere, making the world the album creates even more magical.
A major strength of this album is the feeling of it being constantly in motion, through faster-paced instrumental elements and dynamic shifts, almost reminiscent of a tide coming in and out. The contrasts between songs, such as between the more mellow and gentle “MONDAY” and the more energetic “DANCING WITHOUT MOVING”, make each track feel more special within the context of the album.
The artistry on display in the structure and melodies is stunning, with the tracks being unpredictable in a very compelling way - particularly the third single, “FORGONE”, which is probably the strongest track on the album. Despite how grandiose it is, the production makes the instrumentals feel tender and fragile, boosting their resonance significantly. The writing also feels intended towards driving the dynamic of the story forward, and is executed very well, despite taking more of a backseat to the stellar composition and production.
The project expertly blends together elements from different genres in a way unlike anything Quadeca has done before; while I Didn't Mean To Haunt You ventured significantly into experimentation, its framework was still based within his hip-hop roots. However, on this album, he's mostly left that basis behind and expanded his craft into something almost entirely beyond genre confines. The features are as representative of this as anything - rapper Danny Brown appears on “THE GREAT BAKUNAWA”, while the closer, “CASPER”, features the post-rock band Maruja.
There's one more beautiful detail: as the album concludes with crashing beats at the end of the aforementioned “CASPER” that sound like waves crashing to shore, it loops around back to the start of the opener, “NO QUESTIONS ASKED” - showing that the adventure never truly ends.
Overall, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper is a landmark body of work. It's incredibly ambitious, but manages not to fall into self-indulgence; every element feels like it serves a purpose. It left me genuinely out of breath by the end, and wanting to revisit it again and again to pick up on details I may have missed.
9.0/10
