The Hills Have Eyes has released Love Me Not, a genre-bending debut EP that explores dark and ambient atmospheres.
Up-and-coming Adelaide artist, The Hills Have Eyes has released Love Me Not, his debut genre-bending EP. Through his writing and producing, The Hills Have Eyes explores and encapsulates styles that nod to the trilogy era of The Weeknd, the production sounds and vocals of 808’s Kanye West, and the ambient dance/electronic sounds of Burial.
This melting pot of influences erodes into a dark and ambient sonic experience, loaded with layers of synth melodies and electronic trance elements, with a slice of charming and enriching lyrical expression within the bounds of mental and emotional decisions made by a young adult dealing with heartbreak and temptation.
His first track on the EP, I Don’t Need Love introduces his synthetic soul that spills throughout the collection of tracks. Through melancholic synth sounds and deep distortion wrapped up as upbeat and catchy, The Hills Have Eyes morphs through existential anxieties creating a supernatural eclipse. Within stormy synths, a manifesto arises through repetitive lyrical depth “I Don’t Need Love” and appears both restless and fearless simultaneously.
Next on the EP, Lights Out flutters in with sprinkles of chime-like magic. The vocals are delivered at the forefront of the track with such an eloquent and boundless blistering cadence. Through synth sounds that teleport auras, deep and fast-paced tendencies seep through and formulate a dense and gritty club-like feel. Pedals of the beat scatter through as the melodic crystalized vocals shine.
Temptations, the third track, fuels the use of expansive melodic synths and soars through flashes of uneasy feelings. Unleashing into a sense of dread, unsettling sounds, snare-rattling beats and splintered vocals pulsate through. In an attempt to rein in all these emotions from Temptations, the fourth track, Honesty slowly and swiftly stirs up vulnerable emotions with introspective hunger and poses itself as a beautiful document of desperation. The EP can be summed up on this track through the lyrics, “these four walls can hide all our honesty girl, But the hills have eyes in this small fucking town”.
Forever comes in scratchy and feverish as the fifth track, as electronic sounds bend through possessed vocal outcries. Voyaging through elements of alienation, The Hills Have Eyes encompasses a hypnotic and futuristic melodic feel. The Hills have Eyes utilizes visual expression in the track Without You, as it’s accompanied by a music video. With a green and grimy palette, distorted anxieties within the realms of intimacy and disconnection are explored in fuzzy, mind-altered sequences. Fuelling this, the track sprawls through nervous anticipation as it’s warped in a deep, dark electronic punch.
A thin layer of fog, feather-light melodic piano and cascading vocals introduce Scars, the second-last track on this expressively electronic collection of songs. Vocal-like synths coated in shades of blue, ooze mythical and bewitching feelings alongside a deep bass line that startles its way through the track, erupting into an avalanche of despair. To end the EP, a stylistic shift flutters its way in through Love Me Not’s sweeping lush acoustic and soulful, air-tight vocals that sting you with its heart-rendering confessional outcry.’
The EP leads with a toxic taste fueled by resentment and The Hills Have Eyes uses it as a tool to transition through situations and feelings which allows him to land in a mindset that’s not as intoxicated with alternate realities but one that is made up of raw honest reflection and realization. Take a deep dive deep into The Hills Have Eyes’ journey by checking out the full EP below.
