Super-chill electronica outfit WaxFeet introduces their brand-new LP, Blues and Pinks, an 11-track collection of melting chillwave.
WaxFeet borrowed their name from surfing. Surfers not only wax their boards, but they wax the tops of their feet, which at face value sounds pretty strange. But it’s not. Surfers often have to walk over slimy rocks to get out to the line-up. Once there, they rub the bottoms of their feet on the tops of their feet, thus discarding the muck and purchasing traction for the first pop-up.
For surfers, the goal is becoming one with the ocean. In the same way, WaxFeet’s music immerses listeners into a plush sonic world blending neo-classical electronic music with creamy suffusions akin to the Beach Boys, along with dollops of bossa nova eroticism.
Based in Santa Cruz, California, WaxFeet is made up of Damon Danielson and Patrick Brede, who hooked up in 2019 to create low-slung, imaginative, instrumental melodies drenched in lo-fi textures. The bulk of their listeners are 13 to 18 years of age, who are either reading or studying and using the music to enhance their concentration.
Explaining, the duo shares, “We often ask ourselves: to chill, or not to chill? There is enough commotion in life without jacking up brain waves further. We are driven to write music that heals. Without words.”
Essentially, WaxFeet’s sound is lo-fi, chilled-out ear candy – cruising music for your ears. Entry points on the album include “AOK,” riding a resonant thumping rhythm topped by stripped-down gleaming layers of colour. The feel is lo-fi hip-hop gliding on gentle rolling hues; the effect is coasting along a beach on a summer day.
“Do I Know You” offers hints of jazz-laced tones infused with psychedelic flavours, while the rhythm alludes to measure jazz-fusion. A personal favourite is “Just Be Honest,” riding a deep thrumming bassline underneath as luminous, sparkling tones percolate overhead. There’s a tropical, sensual mood emanating from the harmonics on this track, making it vastly alluring.
“Steel Song” amalgamates So-Cal soft country textures with dreamy, industrial surf-pop, resulting in a swaying, bewitching musical sashay. “Steel Song” might be the best track on the album because of its slow, voluptuous flow, like Sade covering Don Ho.
“Well” drips with saturated susurrations, whereas the final track, “Stinky Weed” hovers on the languidly opulent washes of a seductive trumpet travelling on a scrumptious shuffling rhythm.
Simultaneously tantalizing and elusive, Pinks and Blues delivers easygoing, cool, tranquil soundscapes bathed in rippling leitmotifs.
Listen to WaxFeet – Blues and Pinks – BELOW:
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