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Artist Name: Sweet William
Who Are They: A Renaissance dude and experimental scenester, whose rap sheet includes experience in a professional drum corps, a jazz ensemble, and solo marimba performances.
Members
Will Lackey – Marimbas, drums, samples, and sundry forms of electronic wizardry
Sounds Like: Spelunking down into a quartz-filled cavern, but with none of the dirt or grime on yr hands. Like the rain-streaked city crawls of Burial, Sweet William’s Beauty as a Style leaves plenty of room for the listener to plot their own route; many of these dank corridors reverberate with only the echoes of marimbas, ghostly voices from the turntable, and the faintest beams of light. No doubt, this labyrinth houses more unexpected turns than you’d normally expect in a debut, from the rather heady pockets of vapor (and violins) in “Freely Take Freely Give” to the classy slide into a Gil Scott-Heron trip-hop collage with “Scott Free.” Despite those nods, though, Lackey usually isn’t looking for yr head bob, nor for a squad of breakdancers. Many of the most glorious corridors on the record, like the hallowed grounds of closer “Club Owner,” demand quiet meditation, the sort of inner reflection that only comes with solitude and time away from the club-goer’s normal stomping grounds.
Releases: Sweet William’s debut LP, Beauty as a Style, is out Feb. 11 via local label GNR Sound.
Mandatory Listening: The aforementioned “Freely Take Freely Give,” if only for the flare from that crazy violin. Elsewhere, “Hurried Child” offers the most complete symbiosis of Sweet William’s powers—decontextualized voices, crystalline marimbas, dank atmosphere, and a stealthy beat that kicks in only toward the end.
Sweet William will celebrate the release of Beauty as a Style on Mon., Feb. 11 at Divine Paint Co alongside wOOdy, Taves, Dog Lover, Blinker, and DJ Horsegirl. Doors open at 8 p.m.
More Info
Instagram: @sw33t_william
SoundCloud: @will_lackey