\u201cWin or Lose\u201d is an extremely brief EP, containing eight tracks (four songs and their four instrumentals). Despite the length, one of the things I enjoyed about it was its lack of reliance on UK drill rap. The music is sample-driven boom-bap with the lyrics being both introspective and thoughtful. Fellow Newport, England natives DJ Alkemy and Fernquest devised a project whose outcome is realistically lampshaded by its title. The album cover depicts a social housing building. Even in such an environment, winning or losing depends on participatory action from both men.<\/p>\n
Beginning with \u201cMake a Move\u201d, DJ Alkemy turns a saxophone sample into an airy and wistful soundscape with bass and drums. Fern raps about how self-doubt and self-medicating have impeded his progress. But he also recognizes that him remaining in a rut is all on him, so it\u2019s also all on him to do something about it. On \u201cClass A\u201d, there\u2019s a gloss to the production that stands in contrast to the vivid, third-person confessional narrative about the streets. Next up is \u201cSofa Surfin\u2019\u201d, a big-up to those who are down are their luck. In Fern\u2019s lyrics about glum situations, he finds a way to make them uplifting. For \u201cLoyal 1\u2019s\u201d, both artists do a switch-up: Fern speeds up his flow and while Alkemy keeps it simple with a mostly stripped-down flow, with both doing significantly more with less:<\/p>\n
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The four instrumentals are intriguing on their own, having a jazzy feel that leaves listeners to either zone out on them or imagine other takes on them. Despite its shortness, \u201cWin or Lose\u201d is a \u201cwin\u201d for me. It\u2019s two artists from the same region who understand one another, with both having an almost intuitive sense of what to bring to the table. If future collaborations are in-store for Fernquest and DJ Alkemy, one can only hope that they step it up in both length and quality.<\/p>\n
Fernquest x DJ Alkemy :: Win or Lose<\/p>\n
7Overall Score<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWin or Lose\u201d is an extremely brief EP, containing eight tracks (four songs and their four instrumentals). Despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-508863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}