Photos by Miles Pflanz / Words by Willa Rudolph
New York City’s Slic released their debut album, Unbearable Heat, on September 2nd. Tomorrow they’ll be performing a short set of songs from the record at the Sex Workers Project’s open mic at Starr Bar (Friday 9/20, 6-10pm) as part of a fundraiser for families evacuating Gaza.
Their first full-length drop consists of ten songs and years of work, years that saw Slic collaborating with many other NYC underground artists, like the electronic duo OCTOGON and rapper/producer Griff Spex.
While growing up adjacent to Miami, Slic began a love affair with club culture and electronic dance music as they rode the explosion of EDM in the early 2010s. Sneaking out and trekking through the swamp in heels proved their devotion. Slic holds rave culture near and dear to their heart, as they reference house and techno often in their work. Being Venezuelan, they point out the Caribbean and Latin roots of House music and the connection they have to it.
After moving to New York in 2018 to work in the art world, and feeling quite turned off by it, they resolved to create DIY music: Unbearable Heat is self-produced and self-released. Their skill is obvious as you move through the record—listening through front-to-back is quite a journey!
The first track, “Red (ft. Silas)” begins with a gameboy type beat, until Slic’s voice comes in singing, “Can you tell that I’m obsessed? Can you tell I like you the best? When I see you I feel red / See red city red sunset / Turn me inside out, I’m red – So bad, need it like it’s medicine…” Silas’ deep voice is velvety underneath, a sweet duet. There are aspects of R&B, kind of like how FKA Twigs will imbue electronic music with soulful vocals. The beat morphs into something dreamy and then the kick picks up pace.
Next, “Simple Days,” is fast moving and repeats, “I just want simple days,” and suddenly you’re thrown into the darkwave trance that is “Running and Laughing.” Whispers behind a doomy beat and underneath sweet leading vocals course through your veins until you slow down with the violin and soulful vocals of “Fog (ft. Jett Mucicca).” “Waiting for an excuse,” Slic sings. “One day soon, Skies so blue, My heart full from doing nothing but you…”
“Can’t Get Enough” comes next and starts pumping and pulsing, bringing you back to life and illustrating movement. This one has an element of 80’s dance in certain parts, but it’s avant garde and unusual simultaneously. “Bloodstream (ft. OCTOGON)” has laser beam sounds and gorgeous harmonies, building tension as the beat accelerates more and more until the end of the song, as they chant “Murderous, murderous, murderous.”
“Sweat/Tears” is more dissonant and inconsistent in terms of the tempo and beat, with multiple points of switching it up. Marked by Slic’s undulating vocals, which still maintain sweetness and steadiness, we’re led into “WEEEEU,” which is more hiphop and R&B vibes over an electronic house-y beat. This one has a sporty-chic, sick music video that was released a couple months back.
The second-to-last track “Do U Wanna” is wordless and erupts into a synthy tune that mimics saxophone. Finally, “Nave,” entirely sung in Spanish, is dreamy and echoey, replete with striking harmonies and lyrics about wind, movement, song, and volume, including almost rap-vocals at some points, ending with a feverish glitchy sounding beat, and then silence.
Slic sat down with The Deli Mag to discuss their debut full-length, Unbearable Heat.
What story does your album tell?
Slic: When I was writing the songs on the album, my mom’s house had just flooded in this historic flood that took down all of Hollywood, Florida. A couple of months after that, we had the wildfires in Canada that turned the sky orange in New York. It was a toxic, dramatic atmosphere, and I had this moment where I realized, “this is going to be happening for the rest of my life, so I better figure out how to write songs that reflect what’s going on.”
What emotions are most consistently present in the album?
Slic: Love
What’s your favorite song from the album, and why?
Slic: ‘Bloodstream’ was fun to make- my friends Reyna and Regana who are in the band OCTOGON came to the studio to record backing vocals. They’re both great musicians and working with them pushed me. I wanted to impress them by creating a really big, exciting song.
What’s your favorite lyric from that song, and why?
Slic: “Too much talking yeah it hurts my head wish we could throw rocks instead” because yeah…..sometimes the things that are happening require action and not talking back and forth and back and forth.
What are some sonic influences of yours?
Slic: I’m Venezuelan so I grew up listening to a lot of South American and Caribbean music, reggaeton, hip hop, R&B… when I first moved to the U.S., all my friends were obsessed with Power96. In the 2000s, that was THE vibe. Later, I got really into house music and techno. What’s been exciting for me as I get older and learn more about the roots of the music that influences me is that as dance music- it’s all connected. House music especially has Caribbean and Latin roots from the beginning, and you can trace that and see how it connects to the history of the Caribbean and the continent as a whole.
How long have you been making music?
Slic: I was writing music in high school with my music producer boyfriend… I thought we were going to be like Sonny and Cher or something, but that didn’t work out because he was an asshole and I’m a lesbian…
All those songs got deleted when we broke up, which I was very upset about at the time, but I think it just pushed me to do things on my own, so I’m not ever relying on somebody else who has the technical skills to execute my vision. I started taking music production seriously around 2018.
How has being from Miami influenced your tastes musically?
Slic: I actually grew up outside of Fort Lauderdale in the suburbs, the town that I’m from is the last piece of land that developers were able to build houses on before everything becomes the Everglades. When my friends started going clubbing in Miami, I would have to sneak out through this swampy pit outside my window and that’s how I eventually got caught. My heels would be so muddy coming back in, that I left all these shoes outside and my mom one day was like, “What is happening here?” The biggest influence on me from growing up in Florida is that people who are from there tend to have this chaotic outlaw energy, which I am drawn to. I think every genre of music needs that archetype.
What’s next for you as a musician?
Slic: I wanna throw a music festival in the ocean… investors hit me up.
Keep up with Slic’s latest doings here.