YEAR0001 Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Benjamin Reichwald, better known as Bladee, rose to prominence as one of the intrinsic members of Drain Gang; the Swedish alternative hip-hop collective of outsider mega star Yung Lean. Eversince (stylised as 3V3R51NC3) served as the official debut LP from Bladee, originally released in 2022, and showcased a continuation of the vaporwave indebted stylings of the prolific artist's myriad of mixtapes while taking creative leaps in its expansion to encompass elements of new wave, synth-pop and even gothic post-punk, with Reichwald's hazy, xanned out deliver submerged under aquatic levels of reverb and auto-tune, bouncing from synth-laden trap textures to more stripped down, emotive, abstract minimalism.

Review: Amidst label Year0001's recent vinyl production scheme, tackling the domination of resellers and scalpers of the physical merch of Swedish music collective Drain Gang, comes the first wave of archival physical releases (predominantly Bladee, Thaiboy Digital and Yung Lean projects). '333' is just one of the heavily sought-after physical copies of Bladee's music, whose fanbase of drainers has become exceedingly cult-like in their fervour for the cloud rapper and peers. The album was a departure from Benjamin Reichwald's more sombre lyrical themes and grittier production, with the tonality being as bright and colourful as the hand-drawn album cover by artist Claire Burrow. The bubbly production on tracks like 'Reality Surf' and the pared-back acoustic cuts 'Wings in Motion' and 'Only One' make Bladee's fourth project stand out boldly and contain huge selection of Drain Gang fan favourites.