Achille - sketches & visions

Achille just seems like a jack of all trades. Between the sweet soulful loops he’s dished up as ‘a haunted house’ for crews from NO CLUE to PSG, or the incredibly underrated visual pairings of beats and visuals on his MMRYWVR channel, I can’t even tell what he’s strongest strength is anymore among such a range of talents. But I will say I’ve been listening to a lot more of his solo instrumental efforts lately, teasing with ‘burning still’ earlier in the year to where he now delivers something even more cohesive and intentional. It’s a quality I love in all Achille beats but I hear it so strongly with this one; everything just feels so subaquatic, all so washed in the deep blues of the cover, diving deeper and deeper until the “water doesn’t even feel blue anymore.” I can only help but listen to this album with a made-up MMRYWVR visual in my mind, every crunchy kick and snare hitting like ink blots and every melody echoing out like the perimetres of the frame are cracking and wearing away. The drum selection is just excellent across the entire tape, more abrasive when it needs to be but mostly calmer and considered, like the moonlit ‘stillwater’. He just seems to have an innate sense of space and finding textures that seems to replicate the feeling of the sample; often times jazzy and ethereal, but always seeming to carry some melancholy. Whether or not this tape is just a bunch of sketches, the entire project seems to emit such a strong atmosphere, diving into the abyss for 10 minutes and feeling refreshed after it’s done.

KEY BEAT: rapture - this one feels so bittersweet and sombre, slowly-moving rhodes echoing out and what sounds like sleighbells shaking in the background, like walking along the pier gazing over the water.