Sometimes you come across a bit of music that’s so in its own world and by an artist with so little information available online, that it seems almost more like outsider art than a part of the general scene- even the really obscure parts of the scene. That’s a dead-on description of billy, an (apparently) Austin-based solo artist that does some washed-out, way weird psychedelic electropop and who released his best yet piece this month with the structurally surprising and oddly charming track “mindz.” We couldn’t even get a legit picture of this elusive artist who doesn’t seem to have a Facebook page (at least that we can find); we had to take a screenshot of his Instagram and crop it. That ain’t normal these days y’all, but it kinda does add to this kid’s charm in this age of oversharing.
The track itself is equally enigmatic- it starts heavily melancholy in both tone and concept, a piece of slow electronic pop with equally balanced elements all plodding within its simple drum machine beat. Butt then at 1:07, when the chorus pops in, a very Air-esque high-toned, bright and pretty hook comes through hard and just massively changes up the feel of the whole song. It takes it from weird and cute but potentially something that might get overlooked after a few listens to a track that’s just arrestingly unique and which can even get the spine tingling a bit with its lazer-clear tones.
The lyrics continue the trend of ambiguity, seeming to be a reflection on perception and the way it interacts with relationships (“In our minds/We won’t go/In my mind/You want them”), but being deliberately obtuse about it in a way that pairs happily with the way the track’s sound is hard to pin down. All of it makes you wonder who billy is, what they’re all about and what else they can do, and that to us is the sign of a very interesting emerging artist indeed. Try billy’s stuff out yourself below, and if any of y’all have more info on this musician (at the least so we can let them know about the post), feel free to share in the comments. We’d like to know more about this one.
