Review Summary: rave in my bedroom / ur not invited
Yunè Pinku hates trance, knows how to navigate a breakbeat and makes the perfect kind of pith-laden bitesized house tunes for people too lazy to listen to house. Just don't expect her to shout about it: her vocal style is as languid as any Eilish-era bedroom artist, but her rhythmic phrasing displays an intimate affinity for the nuances of the beats in question, whether she's riding on breakbeat syncopation ("Bluff") or metronomic house ("DC Rot"). These tracks' chord choices are equal parts chromatic and colourful but not hummable, leaving her voice as the main vehicle for melody - and to this end, she gets a lot out of downplaying strong hooks with monotonous delivery, delicately balanced around subtle adjustments of inflection. This approach carries an obvious set of risks, and "Affection" in particular fails to break out from the gloom of a murky interior monologue, yet for the most part her knack for restraint strikes a fine balance between dancefloor haze and the kind of pensive nothingness mysteriously endemic to the early hours of the morning.
Honestly though, this kind of focused songwriting, crystal-clear production, understated show of personality, insistent hooks and rich tones is always going to sound good regardless of context. Its intrigue and appeal are immediate, but its satisfaction is more elusive:
Bluff frequently feels like a tease, partly in like with the raison d'etre of the four-track debut EP, but mainly because there's a feeling of vastness, or nothingness even, that seeps from every ounce of these tracks' out-of-mind danceability and dissociative twilight stylings. A couple of replays on and it's a half-scratched itch; add a couple to that and it's a barrel with no bottom. For the time being, I've had enough of not having had enough of it, but the moment it's out of my system I'll be ready for more.
