HEAVENSGATE | Pitchfork

Earlier than Evilgiane ever made music, he was a skater. It’s how the producer’s New York-based collective Surf Gang bought began: linking up below the Manhattan Bridge and sharing trick movies set to vaporwave. Since 2018, the crew has fractured and morphed, and their profile soared when Giane scored beat placements for Earl Sweatshirt and Kendrick Lamar that represented each rappers’ greatest releases of final yr. However on his new mixtape, #HEAVENSGATE VOL. 1, he nonetheless thrives inside a posse, inviting hyper-regional expertise to slip over a group of exquisitely fine-tuned beats that place him as a superproducer within the making.

Giane is used to staying targeted with loads of producers within the studio. Surf Gang’s 2021 launch SGV1 packed a extra strong iteration of the group onto a tape bursting with concepts whereas remaining loyal to a discernible imaginative and prescient—pattering polyrhythms held down by 808s so glossy they hit like a excessive diver getting into the water, no splash. However he hasn’t but examined himself on this scale, recalibrating his signature method to a options roster the dimensions of a summer time camp soccer group. It’s a lofty activity and he largely nails it.

Not one of the vocalists right here have the identify recognition of a Kendrick or an Earl, so Giane’s delicate contact is a vote of confidence. When it’s Massachusetts singer-songwriter Lucy on the monitor, clipped synth flares and a racing hi-hat match his chatty supply. Atlanta’s Ok$upreme checks Younger Thug-style ad-libs over what have to be a misplaced Twilight Zone theme on “Lil Wayne”; Harto Falión’s dreamy laments on “Ugly Fairly” float over synth melodies that would’ve come out on Leaving Data. “Informants” casts Georgia shape-shifter and character aficionado Slimesito in a wet nighttime neo-noir through trilling drill snares and an undulating synth like a string part bowing a mile underwater.

Generally, Giane makes these transient, poised compositions out of extraordinarily uncooked materials. When Atlanta’s Bear1Boss—recognizable, in some circles, because the younger man who shouted out God for reserving him in the identical jail as Playboi Carti in a viral clip—takes the mic on “IDK Nun,” it’s not a standout verse. However Giane’s gossamer web of chimes catches him each time he falters, draping round Bear’s yelps and whispers and bringing to thoughts the beautiful open area that closes one other early Giane manufacturing spotlight, Babyxsosa’s “Who You Love.” He doesn’t steamroll Bear’s viewpoint, however he doesn’t go away him out to dry amongst extra skilled stylists both. As beautiful as they get, Giane beats make good armor too.