The sample drill movement has in many ways invigorated New York rap, but almost any sound that’s exciting and unpredictable can grow formulaic: Throw a pitch-shifted flip over a familiar drum pattern, and you’ve got a hit. The Hartford, Connecticut-born RealYungPhil has carved out a niche as one of the scene’s more evocative voices, complimenting his blunted resonance with pluggnb-like flips of classic R&B slow jams. But on his new project Victory Music, Phil switches up his routine, sharpening his flow over minimalist, left-field beats. The almost ambient atmosphere strips back the drums and the chopped-up samples to emphasize the essence of Phil’s vocals.
The clear change in sound is owed to an international link-up between Phil and the experimental Swedish laboratory that is the Sad Boys collective: producers Gud, Sherman, & Woesum, who first came to prominence as the primary architects of Yung Lean and Drain Gang’s ethereal electronic-influenced sound. As Gud did with New York’s Rx Papi on Foreign Exchange, the Sad Boys production collective pushes RealYungPhil in new directions without losing the core of his sound.
Phil flaunts off-the-cuff energy in his cadence, as tosses off conversational bars without ever raising his voice beyond a stoned monotone. Like so many of his underground peers, from Polo Perks to Shawny Binladen to RXK Nephew, RealYungPhil’s flow is a consistent pattern that doesn’t often clearly differentiate between verse and chorus: it’s just a non-stop stream, catchy but loosely structured. On tracks like “I Had Enough” and “Old Times,” Phil’s flow is slower and more deliberate, slightly old school, compared to the scurrying delivery he employed on the more up-tempo Dr. Phil and Dr. Philvinci tapes. His voice isn’t a mumble or whisper, but the energy is lowkey and a bit restrained, with a feeling of depressive resignation lingering at the edges.
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Sans vocal, the title track sounds adjacent to retro-tinged synth-pop, mixing chillwave with thick Memphis style beats. The heavy kicks and claps on tracks like “Old Times” feel like more conventional Hip Hop drums, the percussion on “I’m Not Them” and “Ls To Wins” are more like Phil Collins than DJ Paul, the kind of icy stadium-sized drums that defined 808s & Heartbreak. When there are samples, they’re inscrutable and ghostly; “Talk of the Town” is more like an early Baths recording than Phil’s usual R&B flips. Even when he’s celebrating his successes and boasting on songs like “Opening Doors,” the layers of dreamy synthesizers create a shoegaze-like feeling of bittersweet nostalgia. “Bad Habits” is glittering trance-trap fusion, a slurred synth that speeds up and down like a rewinding tape, punctuated by sirens and shattering glass. The keyboards on “Winners Circle” are soft and fluttering, lending an additional air of introspectiveness.
Phil has often hinted at a soulful side, which he taps into more genuinely than ever before on Victory Music — ironically, by moving away from the obvious R&B samples that defined his earlier work. Where Phil’s music has so often been up-tempo, sticking strictly to the drill formula, the textured synthesizers and IDM-like sound design of Sad Boys’ trademark style draws out the sadness in his voice. There’s a sense of creeping anxiety that the colorful pop music allusions and frenetic drums once obscured, lending the album’s title a kind of twisted irony; Victory Music is as much a funeral dirge as a celebration.
