Cracking open a melodious morning egg for this edition of Lo-Fi Sundays is the California-based beatsmith standingwolf. Replete with all of the traditional hip-hop deliciousness that we’ve grown so fond of, standingwolf demonstrates a knack for a wide array of modalities and musical motifs; stretching from dusty samples and melancholy atmospheres to textured synthesis and processed percussive glitches, this Golden State rhythm junkie has both feet dancing around the boundaries of the lo-fi universe.
From a traditionalist point of view, standingwolf’s discography is mostly imbued with boom-bap sensibilities and an overt hip-hop orientation. Swells, heavy side-chains, organic sampling, and hypnotic composition play a heavy role in the majority of their musical output. Tracks like “once in a while, wilder” and “feint” hone in on compositional staples of lo-fi, blending faded melodies and tactile rhythms into head-nod anthems. Breaking away from these motifs, “translating the color of you” and “Awful Gut.” put a spin on the standingwolf catalog, with the former being an experiential dive into melody, and the latter being a break-neck jaunt into a glitched-out stereo space.
With a small discography stretching back three years, it seems standingwolf has a particular and frugal approach to musical exhibition. This frugality translates into nearly 30 top-notch tracks covering various nooks and crannies of lo-fi musical territory. Given the quality and consistency to their existing releases, you’d be best to keep a watchful eye on standingwolf from here on out.
FOLLOW standingwolf: Soundcloud / Spotify