Immediately following the announcement that he would be featured on Mykki Blanco’s first Dogfood MG release, Yves Tumor uploaded a Soundcloud EP titled When Man Fails You.
It’s a somnambulant collection of melodic mostly piano-based sketches, disconcertingly apt at capturing moods. “Slow” is an anxious shimmering dream, ominous piano backing an ASMR whisper. “Ciervo” is all whimsical plinking, “Psalm” appropriately meditative, “IGWAGBD” dissociative as a Fantasia outtake. It’s a dream that’s also a nightmare, and the duality is best illustrated by the two standout tracks, “Limerence” and “Body as Wilhelm.” The former is an eerie one-sided conversation, a woman’s voice piercing through hazy vaporwave reverie, urging “babe, look at the video…say something…it’s recording right now” as the track fades into thunderclaps and pouring rain. The latter is an intensifying string (or synth-string) piece, like if “Lux Aeterna” were to be pared down without sparing any of the dread, culminating in layered muffled screams. The balance shifts more towards nightmare on the harsh noise of “Keloidal (Porto-Novo)” and the sparse “Blood & Innocence”, which lingers in ambient hopelessness before unexpectedly resolving in thirty seconds of upbeat groove.
It’s hard to say whether this is any indicator of what’s to come on C-ORE. This release is wholly experimental, but Yves is equally capable of deep grooves and dance hits, so it could really be anything. In the meanwhile, this is fully available for vibing.
