hajj: drag me into the void

Key Parisian artist and Dawn Records CEO, Hajj disintegrates ambient, trance and rap instrumentals on a lush turn for Youth following his 2020 solo debut for BFDM - RIYL DJ Lostboi/Malibu, Ronce, AYYA, Burial. Highly regarded around these ways for introducing the likes of Ronce on his Dawn Records label - with whom he collaborated on the ‘Aquatics’ LP - and a string of ace compilation cuts, visual artist-turned-producer Hajj renders his most ephemeral yet affective conception of a negative ecstasy in ‘Drag Me Into the Void’. The three tracks reprise the billowing introspection of his 2020 debut for Brothers From Different Mothers , ‘Dédicace À Personne’ with a subtly refined palette and sound design, dematerialising traces elements of late ‘90s trance and up-to-the-second trap into thee gauziest, gently buoyant ambient space. The trio of tax slot neatly into YOUTH's cross section of contemporary bedroom/living room/imaginary club space with a breezy mutability. ‘Drag Me Into the Void’ appears in subtly alternate mixes, bathing a trance siren vocal refrain in anaesthetising reverb and vapourized traces of emo-rap drums with a sublime sense of deferred gratification on the original, while nipping/tucking to more elusive allure in the ‘Euphoria’s death edit’. In the middle ‘Reverse Catharsis’ augments the syrupy ambient rap aesthetic with more pronounced woodblock percussion hinting at Burial hitting the downstroke, and lit up with killer, trancey hyper-blooz synth plucks.