84/100
The aftermath of Illenium’s Awake album is leaving us, listeners, some amazing new renditions of his works.
From a spectrum of remixes of different genres to piano renditions of its emotional vocal pieces, there are reworks for everybody’s tastes.
The latest one though may be the most interesting of them all, since it seems to be coming from the studio of the man himself, Nick Illenium. But (like how he calls himself) ya boi is not coming alone, as today’s song is actually a Live Edit (!) of a mashup (!!) of two collabs (!!!) out of his album: ‘Where’d U Go‘ with best friend and live pianist at his concerts Said The Sky and ‘Sound Of Walking Away‘ with gifted Estonian singer and songwriter Kerli.
The only name that seems kind of out of place is 1 7 8 8 – L.
This is the first time that we at EDM Reviewer are featuring the cryptic and enigmatic name of 1 7 8 8 – L. A little bit of backstory is necessary.
L is a mysterious producer without a face that is said to be a musical cyborg coming from the future to show us the new frontier of sound. The guy (or thing?) is creating his (its?) follow on social platforms thanks to the incredibly complex and uniquely distorted sound design of his (its?) bass bangers.
Some people actually think 1788-L is Porter Robinson’s hidden alias, or that he/she doesn’t actually exist and is only Illenium’s new creative outlet. Anything is possible, but what is sure is 1 7 8 8 – L’s sound is a whole new world to be discovered; so much that sources such as Run The Trap and big-league names like RL Grime and Ekali consider him/her/it the f u t u r e of bass music.
Don’t walk away as we break down this interesting release.
As a side note let me remind you how extremely rare is a DJ and live performer like Illenium to be officially releasing a mashup. And not only it is a mashup, but a live edit of his own mashup. Illenium has been consistently dropping this dancefloor weapon for the past 7 months and gave hints of a collab with 1788-L right before his huge Coachella performance back in April. It’s a one-of-its-kind of a release.
With all of this out of the way, let’s hop into the release.
As expected, ‘Where’d U Go’ trademark vocal loop complements well with the darker vibe of the buildup and Kerli’s suffering chanting. But at one point, it becomes clear that this not your usual emotional melodic dubstep vocal track. Quite the opposite, since 1 7 8 8 – L job here was to give the mashup a dark downtempo bass twist to turn it into an unexpected dancefloor slayer.
The psy-trance vibes (mostly the similar bassline) enhance the minimalistic groovy power of the first drop.
The vocal chop section has been given a darker and deeper tone, making the buildup all the more immersive. A brilliant move. Suddenly, the second drop hits you out of nowhere. And it’s so damn gritty. We can finally hear some real dubstep elements here.
I must mention Illenium is actually remarkably competent at making dark-edged dubstep as you can hear in some other Live edits of his songs.
The icing on the cake for this VIP is the melancholic piano outro that fits the repeatedly questioned ‘where did you go?’. Another intelligent addition.
It would not be a proper review, though, if we wouldn’t take a look at the fleeting flaws that even a high-tier release like this may bear.
Objectively speaking, 1 7 8 8 – L futuristic approach at such a classically sentimental composition is not easy to appreciate at first: his/her/its artistry is still a highly unexplored territory and the contrast with the originals is considered drastic by some long-time Illenium listeners.
The lyrics can seem confusing when looked at closely, but the pure beauty of the vocal more than make up for it.
Lastly, a complain that a lot of fans have expressed is the striking similarity between Illenium’s style in his Live Edits and Porter Robinson’s (1 7 8 8 – L might have taken inspiration from one of Porter Robinson’s most recognizable works). But when you consider that both producers come from a melodically and sentimentally rich sound design, it’s understandable why both are looking for a heavier approach to satisfy the crowd with during shows.
They both produce dance music at the end of the day. Though the similarity between the sound makes people scratch their heads. Maybe this L is really Porter… who knows.
Breaking down this short but huge release was not an easy task, especially by an objective standpoint, since it came from the labs of some of the best creative minds of bass music. But that’s exactly the thrill of it! Some people consider it to be of the best songs of the year, other listeners say it’s one of the most disappointing and worst-sounding; for us reviewers this is undoubtedly one of the exotic and compelling releases of the year!
We’ll definitely hear more of this in the upcoming future.
What do you think?
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