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Live Review: Flower Boy 卓颖贤's out here living in '3050'

29 January 2019 | 1:54 pm | Caitlin Medcalf

You know those rare occasions where you hear a track that commands your attention so much so that it becomes the only thing you listen to for an extended period of time? FLOWER BOY 卓颖贤's latest cut of experimentation '3050' is currently fulfilling that role for me.

In amongst releasing her debut EP FASCI(N)ATION last year, launching the Flower Boy 卓颖贤 Matchmaking Service (yes this is not a drill, she's running a matchmaking service) and playing a gigantic variety of shows across town including both live performances and DJ sets, the Sydney producer's penchant for experimentation has been extended to this very new cut.

Cinematic is the first word that immediately springs to mind in the first sixteen bars of this one, with arpeggiated chime-like synths dancing delicately over a booming Inception-esque bassline. The percussion is sparse, but present.

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That bassline continues to build into something much more than that, with multiple tones coming in for harmonic, sustained chords and strings being added to add depth and intensity. A vocal sample sits above a percussionless instrumental for a few bars, floating atop the atmosphere until the percussion is reintroduced, and the intensity continues to stem.

In the notes of the track, she's said just this:

we are already living the future we dreamt of

when the world changes around us one day at a time, it is hard to see how far we've come

do you remember how the computer would scream when we wanted the internet?

crumpled notes in the bottom of my bag from our private messaging

fear of getting lost

or worse

losing you in the crowd.

but somehow, now, no matter how good the gps 

i still can't seem to find you

nobody told me you wouldn't be there with me in 3050

Flower Boy 卓颖贤's musical world has proven already to be something completely other. '3050' is a complex addition to her back catalogue, but one that sits right at home amongst the thoughtfulness of her previous output.

Photo by Yin Yue Chan

Words by CAITLIN MEDCALF

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