Call it kismet. I’d spent a couple days immersed in the inside-out realms of Houston chopped-and-screwed remixes and Kingston dub versions when Quietus alerted me to Iceboy Violet. The Manchester artist’s The Vanity Project violently mashes grime and metallic electronica into a radioactive alloy. The toxicity of Iceboy Violet’s everything-at-once sensibility is minimized by the 20-minute length of the new mixtape. Thrillingly disorienting, The Vanity Project is a startling (un)funhouse. I’m grateful the spirits of DJ Screw and Lee “Scratch” Perry serendipitously dispatched Iceboy Violet to me at precisely the right moment.
