The tire-marked sand is sticky. The water’s refreshing, dyed the color of mud by mineral deposits and pollution. Kites dance above the horizon’s chemically-enhanced sunset while trash punctuates the terrain beneath it. The air is still, humid, stagnant. 

Inspired by trips down the shorelines of its titular beach with tight-knit groups of friends, the scenes from Houston, Texas-based producer Hustle Cry’s debut EP Surfside unfold slowly, with a stoned quality that reflects the region’s sense of being out of time. There, the stale, grayed surroundings recall memories of altered states and escapist tendencies, of queer bodies dancing against the oppressive, littered landscapes while SUVs flying conservative banners wheel by. 

These types of incongruencies and contradictions flow through the record, where structures from club and pop are imbued with the hypnotic ambience of Japanese experimental records and trip-hop. Circular rhythms built on Latin drums bump and layer on “Kites,” building and vanishing as if controlled by the same elements as the wind chime melodies beneath them. And on "Oil Rig," Hustle Cry calls back to classic reggaeton, scrapping its digital synths for the homemade bells and clanging metallic percussion of Indonesian gamelan.

DJ Screw's influence pops up on “Tides,” where a voice coos, “When you look into my eyes / it means I love you," but whose sweet nothings are stretched and disembodied, wrapped in bent guitars and plucked harps. And on "Sand," the project’s most somber moment, cresting waves of warm synths and gentle noise are punctured by reflective shards of Avril Lavigne. 

Playing with nostalgia and the uncanny feeling that comes with existing in a landscape defined by juxtaposition—by beauty and ugliness, kites and oil rigs—Hustle Cry crafts songs that conjure memories of the club, the beach, but mostly of some third, interior place between them.

All tracks written, produced, mixed and mastered by Hustle Cry
Vocal samples on tracks 1, 2 and 4 by Jessy Lanza, Avril Lavigne, and Daddy Yankee


Oil Rig

Hustle Cry

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