Will It Burn
Album Title: In Other Circumstances
Record Label: Self Released
Review by Geert Driver
(2913) Page Views
Will It Burn - In Other Circumstances
Milwaukee has never strayed from the musical map. The city has always given birth to talent. But it has always been a working-class talent. The flashiness of Hollywood has rarely caught up with Brew City. Every ounce of talent has been earned in Milwaukee—and with good cause. This is the case with Milwaukee duo Will It Burn.
Despite seeing a very limited digital release, the duo’s 2011 EP Low Dial Almanac possessed a number of high notes (both literal and figurative). And also despite more or less shelving the EP, the duo—comprised of lyricist songstress EmAliyah and beatmaker, producer and DJ extraordinaire EightZero—got right to work on what would be its first full-length record, In Other Circumstances, seeing light on digital and physical formats.
In Other Circumstances is complex though. It might as well be two halves making a whole. By design, EightZero’s beats are strung together to make an opus similar to instrumentation. But the surprise comes when it’s learned that there isn’t even a single instrument played throughout. Pulling from the obscure and forgotten, EightZero weaves in and out of mainstream and lends on the power of hip-hop to create something original. Complemented by haunting vocals and lyrics that run the gamut of love, social commentary and even politics, EmAliyah sews intricate stories around EightZero’s woven “rhythm section.”
The result is a cohesive record of otherworldly vocal stylings set to throwback production, creating intellectual music begging listeners to dig deeper and skip the aforementioned flashiness of Hollywood and finally get back to the music at hand.
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