KPKieran Press-Reynolds

1. Article · Sep 29, 2026 · Kieran Press-Reynolds

   ki: “tissue” (opens the original)

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   ki’s “tissue” conjures up a school of tiny fish. Flickers of maybe-phrases—“wanna be with you,” “what I’m saying”—stick out from the stream of pitch-shifting gurgles that adorn makkgin’s delicately pummeling beat. Trying to transcribe this song is a lost cause; it’s about the syllables and the feeling. The song combines underground sing-rap experiments over the last decade, from 645AR’s heavenly squeals to David Shawty’s ridiculous stutters to wokeups’ warbly plugg

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2. Article · Sep 18, 2026 · Kieran Press-Reynolds

   The Unbearable Ubiquity of “GG EZ” (opens the original)

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   INT. GAMING LOUNGE/SHORTFORM CLIP GENERATION FACTORY SUGAR sits in swively gaming chair. Dark headphones bob atop poofy red hair. A small dark couch lingers in the back, housing what appears to be Lays chips and maybe a Cheez-It parcel. Cut to KAIEN, also headphone-encased, in a dark gaming chair outlined with red. Glasses and a soccer jersey are involved. In lieu of chips, his dimly-lit room is full of absence, material and spiritual. Zoom into SUGAR’s face; anime speed lines surround her as

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3. Article · Sep 17, 2026 · Kieran Press-Reynolds

   AKRIILA: lucy miró al mundo y notó que está girando (opens the original)

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   Just when you thought the kids had buried the Beatles for good, here’s AKRIILA with lucy miró al mundo y notó que está girando. The title of the rising Chilean star’s new album (“Lucy looked at the world and noticed it’s turning”) borrows lines from “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” the first song AKRIILA learned to play on the piano. The Fab Four might seem like an unlikely reference point for a flame-haired 22-year-old whose berserk debut

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4. Article · Sep 1, 2026 · Kieran Press-Reynolds

   A History of the Musical Stutter (opens the original)

   Excerpt · Positive tone · English

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   There’s something beautiful about the stutter as a musical device. It can express a very human and basic feeling, like a person in a lovesick tizzy struggling to wrench words out. In the hands of deft producers, stutters are deployed to make a mini-hook out of a single syllable, extending a peak moment into a rolling eargasm. Two of the first music scenes I fell in love with, future bass and digicore, revolved around stuttering, maybe because I heard a phantom flutter of the stutter I once had a

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5. Article · Aug 31, 2026 · Kieran Press-Reynolds

   xaviersobased: “Struggle Gang” (opens the original)

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   xaviersobased might be an offspring of Lil B, but he’s too nonchalant to make anything as gooey-sincere and wordy as “Beat the Odds.” The SoundCloud-kid-turned-major-label-wunderkind’s version of a look-how-far-I’ve-come anthem is “Struggle Gang.” This is a monster truck of a track: It doesn’t make sense if you break it down to its janky scrap parts. You have to let it toss you around. But let’s break it down anyway. There’s a bunch of different types of Xavier songs: the acc

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