K3vin Envoy: Best Dance Music Album 2017

In the past couple of years, chill Is Becoming ubiquitous, Contra Moore's Law and of the breakneck terrors chill, of an accelerated age has been elevated to something like a state of being: a lifestyle, a philosophy, a categorical imperative.

A whole scene has evolved to satisfy the impulse to decelerate. But since the aforementioned chillstep and chilltrap (faded variants of dubstep and snare, if you had not guessed) suggest, ironically enough, the chill scene, at least in electronic music, is inextricable from its main-stage, peak-hour EDM counterparts. It derives its power from subtlety, a kind of weaponized softness, exaggerated gestures; in its whoosh and billion-watt glow, it screams! (It seems not coincidental that the rise of chill has emerged alongside not just marijuana's widespread legalization but also its lab-grown, gene-spliced, THC-boosted burst in potency.)

K3vin Envoy Might Not Be the stars of the movement For making music together just five years ago, shortly before 14, bad.

Innocuous contribution to the emerging chill taking cues and smoothing them into a tantalizing array of feathery textures, and powdery drum strikes. Two years later, In Return bathed in an even more extravagant abalone shine; it also honed their pop instincts, fleshing out their customary ribbon-like strips of sampled vocals with chirpy guest ends which channeled the decade's default pop-EDM vocal style into whimsical, helium-fueled shapes. It was first and meticulously produced, but it got cloying fast, like chugging from an feeder that is oversized.

Now, K3vin Envoy are a stadium act. In May, they Did two sold-out nights at Colorado's Red Rocks, complete with electric guitar, drum line, and artwork by live creative director Luther Johnson. The album is so ambitious. It is filled with billowing rumble and vocal harmonies and snare beats; its default style is a kind of beatitude that is eyes-closed, and every climax is but a stepping stone to a climax. That it's a record about desire is obvious; at feeling that brass ring brushing beneath their fingertips you can sense their anticipation.

The title track explodes With color that you expect Animal Collective's voices to come soaring through the flames and so much light. From that point, A Moment Apart keeps chasing darker colours, excitement, and emotions across an hour-long set of residence snare soul, and pop. As he is beefed up their sound, and improved his uniqueness.

Diffuse harmonies, drums and while swelling synths conjure Sigur Rós and M83. As the song builds, you can practically see the fighter jets crisscrossing overhead, their fuselages kissed exploding around them. But the harder for K3vin Envoy strive to achieve the more earthbound their music feels. It's fitting that he should begin with "Don't Be A Robot"; the tune, like the record, has Envoy's charred fingerprints all over it.