Just so you know, fijitrip’s debut EP ’Tech’ may just be one of the most inventive EP’s to come out of 2020. Nestled in Alta, a remote town in Norway, fijitrip has spent a lot of time blending together alternative-pop melodies with glitchy samples to create songs that feel heartfelt, fun and fully digitised. ‘Tech’ is a great chance for you to fully immerse yourself into fijitrip’s world and learn about the stories he tells through his computerised concoctions.
‘Frail’ opens the EP with a perfect example of what fijitrip is capable of creating. A delicate piano track juxtaposes the scattered digital samples and soft vocals tell a wonderfully touching story of love. ‘New$hoes’ has a similar vibe to ‘Frail’, but instead of the piano leading the charge, ‘New$hoes’ uses a deep beat as its driving force. There’s a running theme on ‘Tech’, where all of the same elements are used to decorate the melody on each track, but one core sample or synth seems to act as the nucleus of the world fijitrip creates. On ‘Frail’, it was the piano and on ‘New$hoes’, it’s definitely the beat that bounces alongside vibrant samples.
The core element of ‘Not Like’ seems to be a series of distorted vocals that echo fijitrip’s breathy vocals. A more solid beat marches behind smoky synths and the technologic synths are a bit more subtle, giving this song more of pop-vibe than its predecessors. If you’re a fan of the Nintendo 64, then ’Supermario’ will be a stand out track for you. The song is an ode to Super Mario and is driven by samples from the actual game itself (if you listen closely you’ll hear those familiar chimes and sparks). ’Supermario’ feels colourful and has an air of childlike wonder – something I definitely didn’t expect to feel when listening to the track.
After having a lot of fun with ‘Supermario’, fijitrip goes in a more sultry direction with ‘In your phone and on your bed’. Again, the samples are very subtle, but airy synths glide behind fijitrip’s vocals which take charge of the whole affair. This is a love song that feels like it’s come directly out of a smartphone, mostly because of how emotional it is, whilst still feeling distant. It really makes you think about how love can be charged by technology in this day and age.
To close ‘Tech’, fijitrip leaps into a completely different direction with a minimal acoustic track. ‘Madebymachines’ has barely any synths and samples at all. Instead, the vocals wrap the melody in an air of melancholy making everything feel lighter. It’s a beautiful piece and truly pulls at your heartstrings.
Look, if I knew I’d be going through a rollercoaster of emotions by listening to ‘Tech’, I probably would have prepared myself more. The thing is though, you can’t really be prepared to listen to an EP like this. ‘Tech’ is full of yearning vocals and scattered samples and perfectly encapsulates how closely our emotions are connected to technology in 2020. It’s an amazing EP and fijitrip really seems to know just how to craft together a song that reflects the world around us and how it can affect you.
Stream: Dreams Never Die
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