Scott Xylo is a rare kind of creative, balancing artistic cultural enrichment and a self awareness. a self awareness of upholding his own artistic credibility and cultivating a vision. the journey of Scott from his beginnings to his recent releases is one of experimentation and continuous growth as a artist. when i first heard his music in 2013 it immediately stood out; its clear focus on each song having a vision. his eps usually in the form of a concept album, even his smaller releases, all his creations were not simply to be taken in at face value as some fluff for your playlist. these are dense tracks, full of story, of personality and energy. his style at the time reminded me at the time of Roots Manuva, Samiyam, Flying Lotus’ Raw Cartoons, Gorillaz, Ras G and JayLib (Imagine Jay, Otis & a band scoring a sci fi flick). it stood apart from the other producers at time, because of his clear awareness of an album as a complete experience. Prince said, and im paraphrasing, “Albums are dead, Now Albums are just Singles”. i couldn’t agree more and albums i loved growing up were not a collection of singles, they were experiences. in most cases the singles would Stand out as a break from uniform aesthetic for the sake of album sales and videos. times are changing and artists like Scott Xylo really showcase the ability that one song or an album has to tell a story, a kind of formless narrative. fast forward to 2019 and this man has honed his skills that now i could list probably 20 artists he reminds me of. He has defined his own style, he has etched away and built his craft to a point where the line between “bedroom producer” and “Composer” are clearly defined. Scott Xylo is a weaver of sounds & rhythms, an arranger of sonic motifs, drawings cues for the ear and leading the listener into the heart of a very immersive experience.
his upward projection is hard to pin-down to a single watershed moment. he has consistently released dense deep projects and has shown growth in an linear way since the jump. Its easy to be overwhelmed with the constant influx of music these days, but Scott is breath of fresh air. Each release showing growth and progress into his unique dystopian grooves. a major boost came in 2016, when he was featured on boiler room , where he premiered his new track “Evangelion”. the track featured Low Leaf, the multi instrumentalist singer song writer, whom accents the song brilliantly. The pairing is something you would think wouldn’t come to fruition simply out of sheer forward thinking collaborative efforts of the two young artists and arguably the largest independent live stream music platform.
for the aforementioned reasons, it was not a surprise to hear the evolution of his music, the growth to what it has become. from boom bap fuzzy warm beats to electro tinged grooves to polyrhythmic afro-beat psychedelia and beyond, all while continuing a cohesive blend between the styles. there is a kind of canonical journey in his releases past and present. his track Hold On, is a fantastic blend of sounds and takes you to a kind of distant future. a place between futurism and primitivism, the track has hit on a nerve, and its caught the attention of bedroom producers scouring timelines and radio hosts segueing between classic cuts of Fela Kuti and modern song weavers Thundercat.
Scott Xylo has found his pocket, by growing in skills and focusing on creative fulfillment he has found a new world of sound. Ariya is another fantastic example of his distinct style of grooves. featuring Catherine Sera, Marcus Joseph, & Afornaut Zu, it gained traction on bbc radio and the energy has been rising ever since.
Ariya is the abbreviated form of the sanskirt word Ariya-Puggala. Ariya Puggala is a single person or a community of noble people in the one of the four paths to enlightenment in the Theravada. More specifically it is a person who has attained one of the four levels of holiness. Connecting Futurism with eastern spiritualism and capturing a sound that i can only describe as “full of life”, “Bright”, “Warm”, and oddly foreign and familiar.
Following 2018s journey into anachronistic influences, Scott has not gotten comfortable and is still challenging himself and our preconceived notions. His new single “Morpheus” is a Dusty Dub fused foray into an alien landscape.
it is described as the Prelude to his “SPACE WIZARD SAGA”, and you cant help but imagine the voice behind the track, this space wizard, this kind of inter-dimensional hermit. what kind of obscured landscapes could those eyes have seen? what wonders of the cosmos has those eyes witnessed? this sage of the universe, what knowledge will he bestow? the music takes into the opening of a movie, a scene in the minds eye. what lies beyond the world we can see? with scott xylo at the helm, just buckle up, tune in, and drop out, as He guides you through the cascading horizon of an alien world that we call home.
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