underscores are an anomaly within the chaos vortex of hyperpop. The 25-year-old April Harper Gray approaches albums with the plotting expertise of a novelist; 2023’s Wallsocket was themed after an imaginary Michigan city, for which she created a pretend web site full with fictional mailing deal with, pupil newspaper, and “Mothers of Wallsocket” dialogue discussion board. Her songs overflow with hackneyed half-phrases and anachronisms that learn like goofy proverbs. It may really feel bizarre to even name her music “hyperpop”; its digital sheen is offset by an natural crunch, the uncooked chew of alt-rock riffs.
However when underscores unleashed “Music” at Knockdown Middle hours earlier than it dropped final week, it was clear that she’s eternally the child who grew up tinkering on SoundCloud and worshipping Skrillex. “Final night time, I had a moist dream concerning the excellent tune,” she coos, whereas what appears like a hydraulic gap puncher pummels away within the background. There’s no scarcity of glitzy pop pyrotechnics in these PB (post-BRAT) instances, however the music of “Music” is endearingly askew, affected by little tonal jumps and ornate glitches. Gray turns abrasive percussion and 8-bit gurgles into the uncooked substances of want. Once I was rising up we had “Shawty’s like a melody in my head”; now it’s “Once I’m with you, it seems like muu-sss-iiic” smeared towards a rainbow of completely pixelated drops. That is for the individuals nursed on Monstercat, for collectors of Skullcandy headphones, for whom love in 2025 seems like a Syzy-ian EDM-trap eruption of noise.
