Beyond the Golden Coast and the expansive burnt amber stained soil of the outback, lays the city of Perth. A beacon of humanity isolated from the prickly realities that lay beyond. There is no city of comparable size that is as remote. From that seclusion bears tough ingenuity that is a commonality of those who call it home. It is the reason that it has birthed creative forces like Heath Ledger, Kevin Parker, and Troye Sivan. Following their paths, comes a brilliant mind of electronic precision that is Ukiyo.
Forging through isolation is a task for the strong-minded. The brain plays tricks on your conscious. A never-ending battle to overcome the complexities of your mind. It’s the understanding of those electric reactions of synapses that Ukiyo has molded his creative identity and ascended, on the cusp of greatness. Today, he unveiled his newest record, “Good Enough”, which features the unmistakable soulfulness of Maribelle. It is a testament to the unwavering talent and artistry that is Ukiyo.
However before he blessed us with “Good Enough”, the 23-year-old laid a triumphant foundation serving as the launchpad of his own creative genius — A beautiful collaboration with OTR, placements in Will Smith and Casey Neistat YouTube Videos, soundtracking shows on Netflix, HBO, Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and major brand support from the likes of American Eagle, Ripcurl, Microsoft and Volkswagen. Even icons like Pharrell, Martin Garrix and PewDieDie, have supported the work of Ukiyo. The secret of Perth was bound to escape.
Ukiyo continues his emergence from isolation on “Good Enough”. On his production, he intertwines soaring synth design with a punchy beat that creates an environment defined by a swirling mosaic of emotions. At its core, it’s a tale of poignancy, bounding over the soundscape with raw, unmistakable honesty. The crooning of Maribelle seamlessly merges with the production as if it were one symbiotic entity, only able to exist if the other lived. Her lyricism divulges a story that is all too common and something most of us have experienced as we come of age, the end of a relationship and the loss of love. She undeniably captures the compounding feelings of such an experience in her vocals that you can feel the pain of nostalgia from your own past surge through. The culmination of this, Maribelle’s vocal work, and Ukiyo’s production that “Good Enough” beams a spectacular wave of warm and melancholy tingles from your ears to your mind and cascading down your body.
To better understand Ukiyo and “Good Enough”, he provided us with this insight:
“Isolation is something that I’ve become pretty used to, which shouldn’t be a surprise seeing as I’ve been locking myself in a room most days since the middle of high school to work on music. I find it’s an important part of my music-making, at least when I’m trying to make something meaningful, because I can really go deep on how I’m feeling and how music can represent that. I’m constantly using music to help process my experiences, I look at it in a similar way to how people dream to process what happened the day before. It’s just a subconscious thing a lot of the time but I notice a difference if I haven’t done it in a while.”
The release also brings us an ethereal music video of oscillating, psychedelic-like landscapes. The idea was borne from the notion that Ukiyo’s music has a style that fits wondrously with traversing on adventures, as well as, the limitations that COVID-19 has placed upon conventional music video shoots. The work was done by Blacklake who’ve previously worked with OTR, Shallou, and Martin Garrix to name a few. While the video is not traditional, it combines perfectly with the music and serves as a beautiful companion to “Good Enough” and one that I enjoy quite thoroughly.
When an artist captures emotional electricity it is nothing short of perfection and deserves a pause in our lives to listen. Ukiyo does exactly that with the help of Maribelle on “Good Enough” and it’s breathtaking to the say the least. Discover what Pharrell has and give Ukiyo’s “Good Enough” a listen.
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