PREMIERE | Sucreblooms, 'Outgrow' EP
The aesthetic aura and awakening of Sucrebloom, aka Erick Lee; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Aesthetic developments that span accolades, achievements, introspection and ultimately an era of ascension provide creative works that offer a rich and bountiful bouquet of awe and influence to ingest. Introducing Sucreblooms, the solo endeavor of Erick Lee, formerly leader of Modern Rivals, who presents a first listen to a vulnerable cadre of electro psalms in the econo-vignette debut of the Outgrow EP (courtesy of Grind Select). The Brooklyn artist offers a privy cycle that reveals an artist looking both inward and outward in a series of glances cast in a musical light of personal meditations made into supernatural vessels of song.
Outgrow is the sound of thoughts and emotions sprouting upward from seed to stem in manners of serenity, solitude, the gentle sway of saudade, with the spark of the supernatural. Opening track "Honesty" emerges to the surface like candid confessions and conversations that are delivered with the humbled hush of late night voicemails, tear-smudged ink spotted notes scrawled with the pen of heavy-heartedness and all but abandoned texts left on read. The understated percussion carefully propels the water swimming synths that immerse the sparsely pronounced key tones that glimmer in incandescent illuminations that highlight Erick's impassioned and evocative delivery. The artist searches the soul and self for something real, something beyond the embellishments of human nature in pursuit of a genuine connective bond with another person while striving to be personally grounded in the fully realized present of now.
This carries into the complex reckoning of "Present Tense", a self-examination of inner dualities that wrestle with perspectives both perceived by others and the perceptions (along with the misconceptions) projected from the mind’s eye within. Lee delves into the head space consortium of conflict and depressive states that confronts those feelings that linger from the past into the current day. The artist imagines themselves split into two persons, questioning how one of the doubles are perceived by the beholder and dives deep into the canyons of self-image. As the thoughts churn, cycle spin and burn, the pulsing synths stir moods that lend themselves to the malaise of melancholy that we often keep tightly closed and locked up in the clandestine confines of ourselves. The progressive IDM touchstones of “Insane” thump, trip and pulse with the ambience of the most posh clubs whose soundtracks and sets would be crystalized in the copper opaque veneer of scattered and scratched CD-R discs. The components of the past and the pressing states of modern life all collide musically where curiosities and the intrigues of yesteryear become anchored and analyzed by the therapeutic processes of the artist deducing where those weird and wild roads have taken them (with reflective thought as to just where else they also might lead).
The Sucreblooms Outgrow EP is an exercise in the processes and progress of personal growth. The understated and expansive electro production provides a lush audio environment for Erick Lee’s lyrical therapy expressions to play out with earnest exhibitions of where they are at, highlighting aspects of inward struggles and the art of being a work in progress. This can be experienced on “Self-Constrained” that accentuates the pushes and pulls of self-care and the hard work applied to elevating everything from character and the evolution of artistry as can be felt and heard in the creative and intrinsic developments from Modern Rivals to the increasingly vulnerability showcased by way of solo sonic soliloquies under the Sucreblooms moniker. “Self” allows the listening audience to trip inside the artist’s cognitive faculties that ponders questions of paradoxes, antimonies, abstractions, antithetical oppositions and other queries about the meaningful things to keep and what arbitrary baggage to abandon with a semi-certainty of mind. And with all this and much more Lee leaves us with “The Prophet Lives” that sends it all upward with arpeggiated key stair steps that ascend like a chariot on a roller-coaster railway path with the feeling of renewal even if the next destination feels elusive and/or obfuscated from view (and maybe, just maybe that’s okay too).
Portrait of the artist Erick Lee; courtesy of the artist.
Erick Lee generously penned the following reflective manifesto on the processes and inceptions behind the debut Sucreblooms EP Outgrow:
In what circumstances do we feel untroubled and free from worry?
Most of us spend a lot of time trying to find happiness. Unfortunately, happiness is an elusive, moving target. We try to look for it where we’ve found it in the past but often come away unsatisfied, or disappointed. Or maybe we have this idea that if we reach a certain goal, or make some amount of money, we’ll feel wholly satisfied and finally able to be happy. But that line of thinking is easily countered when you consider all of the widely successful, yet troubled and unhappy celebrities out there. So where can we find relief from disappointment, self-judgement and anxiety?
Outgrow is a dialogue about these ideas and ultimately argues that our precious self-identities can be just as harmful as they are helpful in finding contentment in our lives. Identity can give people a kind of mental anchor with which to view themselves and how they relate to the rest of the world. That’s a comforting thing, so naturally we gravitate towards it. But the problem with identities is that they’re static, while humans are endlessly dynamic and constantly evolving. So this friction arises; as we change, how do we reconcile with our old, static identities? Do we cling on to who we were (or thought we were)?
The inimitable Erick Lee; press photo courtesy of the artist.
“Present Tense” was the first song I finished on this record, which is why it probably encapsulates these ideas most directly. It was raining outside when I started to write, which put me in a predictably somber mood. So I recorded the sound of the raindrops bouncing off of my air conditioner which you hear in the opening of the song. The first line of the song, I awoke in the same place, is meant to evoke this feeling of groundlessness (depression?) I had been feeling — like everyday the same negative thoughts paralyzed me. And then If there are two of me, which one do you see? is the realization that if others see me differently than I see myself, why do I see myself any particular way at all? The second verse reflects on some of the things I had done in service of my identity to try to boost my sense of self-worth, at the expense of others, sometimes even my best friends. The chorus, Fill this self with sense, walls fade to fences is meant to be an embrace of a dynamic self, no longer bound by self-definition. And this is present tense, is the feeling of full presence and freedom that comes from letting go of identity. The instrumentation is electronic, but layered with a lot of human vocal sounds because of the subject matter and continues to build and grow into a swell of emotion before the song concludes. It’s meant to mirror the sense of burgeoning freedom, or maybe happiness, found in the lyrics.
Sucreblooms’ Outgrow will be available August 20 via Grind Select, in partnership with Philly company Growies who created a custom planter in conjunction with the release of the EP.