First Look Friday: Kwes - "36" [Official Video] "Cable Car" + More

South London producer, songwriter and jack of all trades Kwes has been dropping his diffident and ethereal bedroom love songs for years now, but while he might have flown under our radars, his brand of spaced-out falsetto and synth heavy "free-hop" grooves have grown too grand to turn our eyes away. Dropping the video for the breakbeat-and-piano founded composition "36," Kwes gives us a glimpse of the kind of angst and reservation every pack of adventurous adolescents trolling through their neighborhood for attention from the opposite sex experiences as their rite of passage. The video's playground and dandelion field settings induce the type of nostalgia that brings that very first kiss (and the pursuit of it) back to mind.

An artist who's influences are as broad as the spectrum of tones he implements (think Frank Ocean, N.E.R.D and Aphex Twin in a heart-shaped box. Think Coldplay meets "Cold Summer." )  Kwes' productions possess a blend of minimalist R&B and programmed drumming bliss that is aptly accented by honest and playfully distant vocal arrangements. The man has the uncanny ability to write stripped-down homegrown ballads that evoke only the sweetest sentiments in listeners and reveal the confidence of a seasoned songwriter, all through the lens of a shy vocalist and a reserved, yet calculated musician. Juxtapositions abound, Kwes does so much with so little, and his duplicity as both an unintentional narrator for his wildly cinematic videos and a direct victim of the strain of heart being conveyed, display a rare complexity in his simplistic and somewhat dissident compositions. While we might have just inducted the UK native into the Okay dream team, he has no shortage of material available at the moment and is poised to release his first full length LP ilp next Tuesday, October 15th. So luckily, we've got plenty to hold you over til then. To get your fix before the album drops, peep the playground funk of his video for "36" as well as the stream for his 4-track EP meantime below and a new track, "Cable Car." Be sure to check back next week when the album drops for some resolve.