GutterPutter

YouTube has always been something of a Wild West for aspiring musicians. Rappers like Joyner Lucas or Benjamin “Token” Goldberg broke through in the website as hyped-up prospects only for their online success to be incapable of elevating them to the stars. Meanwhile, others like Olajide “KSI” Olatunji are more successful in other outlets and thus could afford to put out whatever singles they want even if they’re at best just vanity projects. Then you have a horde of ukulele cover artists, Eminem impersonators, folkish singer-songwriters with dodgy pasts, underground electronic beat makers, and others who are scrounging for a bit of attention. This feast-or-famine, dog-eat-dog online ecosystem means that anyone who really wants to make their dream come true are betting their lives on lady luck. Otherwise, they’ll need to at best accept it as a hobby for a handful of thousands. Meanwhile, big names would take for granted their reputation in making music that are predestined for views.

One of those online aspiring musicians is Benjamin “Quadeca” Lasky, a Californian whose digital footprints began with nerding on FIFA games before segueing into dissing bigger YouTubers and freestyling for little else than to flex on his skills. He initially gets into rapping with his first three albums along with several mixtapes being released in the second half of the 2010s with only positive comments from his established fandom. Most music geeks wouldn’t consider him as a serious talent; they write him off as a virtual cosplayer of Logic. It was in spite of being thought of as a mere novelty act that he kept up with this aspect. He forgoes walkthroughs in football games in favour of his ambitions. Since the beginning of the 2020s, he diverges quite significantly from hip hop in favour of conceptual folktronica and art pop. 2021’s From Me to You was released with nodding respect from the music community and I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You came out just over a year later with more outward praises as he distances himself more from outright rapping. Then, he saw his credentials shining with as many lauded Scrapyard as one of the best mixtapes last year. 

Ever striding towards being the rare exception of an artist who gets his big break through online means, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper is his definite statement to prove his worth. It is here where he narrates the tale from the perspective of the lonesome sailor on a voyage similar to the Odyssey as he remembers his childhood and his love interest. It is here where his folktronic transition is at its most thematically relevant. The contrast between the futurism of electronica and the traditionalism of folk music symbolises the contrapuntal conflict of the sailor’s journey. He’s stuck between his lonely journey of self-discovery that would end in his death and the mere thoughts of his love to keep him going through the entire ordeal. 

Few could set it up quite like the intro. ‘NO QUESTION ASKED’ puts the psychedelic notes with the ebbing strings to mirror the abstract nature of this with its minimal lyrics – “I’ll be there when no one is, no questions asked”. ‘WAGING WARS’ adds clarity when we learn of the sailor’s implied depression and his anxieties about the possibility of drowning from his dreams. The maximalist production, with the layered, reverberating backing vocals from touring band member Oleka, booming drums, and Quadeca’s autotune, doubles down on these negativities to set up the the whiplash in sentiment that is ‘RUIN MY LIFE’. The track is more reminiscent to South Korean artist Mid-Air Thief’s Crumbling back in 2017 with its more subdued traces of electronic notes to liven the acoustic guitar. The topic now traverses to that of childhood where the sailor recalls quite fondly of his optimism and hope compared to the despair and struggles faced in being an adult. Here, his fear rests in being a failure after knowing for sure the fleeting feeling that the world is boundless in its opportunities as the nostalgic piano and cello chords float to vocal echoes and shimmering cymbals. Then, ‘GODSTAINED’ proves itself to be a lush exit in its fiddly flutes and guitar strums as the sailor sings of his love as if she’s a muse to help inspire his search for purpose.

What makes Vanisher, Horizon Scraper fascinating in its outlook is that while it remains firmly in folktronica, it introduces other notable influences to reinforce its concept. A third prominent genre into the mix is baroque/chamber pop. The grandiosity demands your attention towards the journey as the sailor’s feelings begin to form into an obstacle that would eventually cause his downfall. ‘AT A TIME LIKE THIS’ contains a scratchy, reversed sample on top of growing audio feedback and backing vocals with reverberation to demonstrate the sailor’s desperation, yet the effects all add a holistic weight to it which only foreshadows his descent into obsession. ‘MONDAY’ contains swooning violins, successive piano notes, and a mix of snare and bass drum to draw in the symbolism of the love interest as the sole emblem of hope for the sailor during his ordeals. ‘DANCING WITHOUT MOVING’, on the other hand, sought to slightly disorient through the mix between the modernised, more elaborately produced rapping of Quadeca and the high-pitched, singular keyboard note. It, alongside the near-industrial implosion from ‘THATS WHY’, draws attention to the regrets of the sailor being directionless because of his self-doubt during his coming of age, one that continues to grow even as he became an adult.

From the ambient drone to the ethereality of the refrain’s delivery in ‘I DREAM ABOUT SINKING’ and ‘NATURAL CAUSES’ respectively, the sailor’s thoughts get more abstract. Both his prophetic nightmare of drowning and his yearning of his love interest fade into a state where they are like phantoms that haunt him in his journey. A fourth prominent genre that is worth raising in talking about the album is experimental hip hop (one that leans toward noise/industrial influences) as while it doesn’t make up most of the tracks, the way it occupies the next two tracks are key. ‘THUNDRR’ sees Quadeca’s rapping go in and out of noisy dissonances as his search reaches a serious hubris – that being his Zeus-like need for control as a compensation for his shortcomings in life. Then, you have ‘THE GREAT BAKUNAWA’, named after a dragon-like creature from the Philippines’ mythology, with Danny Brown as one of the only featured artists of significant note. Comparatively, his verse from the perspective of the titular being serves as a symbol of the sailor’s fatal flaw of his need for self-validation. It’s an abrasive way to portray the eventual fatality of pursuing pride over simplicity. 

The climax of the album comes with the cornerstone that stood far and wide above many tracks not only in the album, but also many others by different artists throughout this year. ‘FORGONE’, in yet another sudden turn away from the rapping of the past two tracks, errs toward the lushness of Sigur Rós’s and Masakatsu Tagaki’s instrumentation. You could add in perhaps even Parannoul’s disenfranchisement as a young adult as a noteworthy point of comparison. In the track, the sailor reminisces of his love interest back in their shared childhood as we gradually learn of his codependency in her for stability. It’s beautifully haunting in how the backing vocals add to the bittersweet inference that she might be gone for real. That might be the nail in the coffin for why he went out to sea in the first place. The lack of a climatic crescendo in the end, with only the rapid hitting of the snares and the stringed instruments being bowed teasing it only to close off at the cymbal’s ring, confirms her presumed death. It echoes as well the ambience in the end of ‘I DREAM ABOUT SINKING’ as to represent two values to the sailor – that of the hollowing value of life due to her absence and his downfall and death as a result of her demise. In short, it’s a masterpiece in how you should make a deep cut that ties up borderline-rock opera together.

What follows is not the return to folktronica, but the crushing resignation into a harsh strain of jazz rock in ‘CASPER’. Much-anticipated British band and Windmill staple Maruja takes over for the finale as lead singer Harry Wilkinson delivers his sprechgesang to cap off the sailor’s death. Compared to ‘FORGONE’, there exists the noisy crescendo that signifies the drowning that is inevitable. Few switches are as exhilarating as this one and it’s an artistic choice that is well worth its praises. It is exceedingly clear that Vanisher, Horizon Scraper is one of those records that sought to prove that the artist has clear artistic merit to prove and indeed Quadeca does prove it almost to the tee. While the constant switching between genres as a whole would wound up making the album come off as too bloated or excessive that might undermine its maximalist execution, almost everything has their value to play here. 

YouTube has always been a bit of a Wild West for aspiring artists. Its algorithmic specificity means that singers and musicians either must cater their music towards the trend in exchange of their talent or stick to their core while they fade into obscurity. Quadeca is lucky enough to amass nearly two million subscribers at the time of writing, but his works as of late have only slowly reached a million views after more than a year’s worth of wait. It is however a worthwhile trade to make for his talent to be shown in full display. Vanisher, Horizon Scraper is a record that is worthy of discussion among listeners as it averts the belief that popular enough online personalities are likely going to put out wack music. It sets its sight on the stars and while it might not have remade it in its image, it does go far enough to meld with it. For that, Benjamin Lasky should be proud of what he’s done, his fanbase should celebrate for an achievement like this, and outsiders should take note of him more thoroughly.

4.6/5