Have you ever been alone in a department store after hours? Things change after the lights go down. It’s almost imperceptible, yet every bit as impossible to ignore as it is to describe. The gravity feels a little different and the air takes on a sinister tension. It’s the same place you’ve been a million times before, but a change in time and perception tranforms it into an alien planet.
Sad Summer II from Spliff Jacksun is the music that plays on the half-busted PA somewhere up in the rafters of that department store. At times Sad Summer II is almost serene. At other times, it borders on maddening in the discomfort evoked by its dilapidated lo-fi rap beats. The only constant is a slightly skewed forward motion—a detuned synth here, a dragging snare hit you can never quite latch on to over there—that lodges itself in a part of your brain that you probably don’t tend to very often. Hit the stream below and get ready to check out a real weird headspace. –Austin Phy