Quadeca – Wunderworld Fest – The Fillmore – Philadelphia, PA – November 12, 2022

Photos by Nick Bruno © 2022

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Aries Wunderworld Ghost Tee T Shirt Cute Graphic Cotton Short Sleeve Green XL.

“maybe i’m too slow”

🌼I am not distracted by Animal Crossing. I don’t know what you are talking about. X’D I decided to make my version of Red’s jacket in the game and I had a blast doing it. As someone who has a fashion degree I really appreciate the pattern system in the game. Anywhoooooo just fun little update.

[hello]

Aries on film 

(Beat Kitchen, Chicago)

One of my favorites........don’t sleep on this 

Aries - Believe in Me, Who Believes in You

(Pop Rap, Alternative R&B, Emo Rap)

Adding some more force to his accessible emo rap, California-based songwriter/producer Aries delivers a third album that ends up more grating than cathartic. The emo touches of his work aren't prominent enough to be affecting, yet they're not insignificant enough to be ignored. For the first time, Aries' music feels like it's not sure where it's headed.

☆☆½

Is there any way you couldn't like Aries? The Kansas-born, Cali-based producer makes anthems for everyone, especially those who've been going through it. "If all's lost, then how could I fuck it up?" he uttered on Santa Monica, the aching R&B highlight to his sophomore record Welcome Home. Aries is always in his feelings, and that's why people love him. His music yearns for something better, even if it seems always just out of his reach every time. But that's also the main appeal, watching Aries find his own way to contentment with each new album. Strangely, Believe in Me, Who Believes in You feels lacking in that quality to a major extent. It seems to lack the bite his past work did, especially when he starts playing into the pop punk and acoustic rap stuff that's become so commonplace in today's pop. Kids on Molly is a hilariously insubstantial piece of pop punk, with muddy power guitars that are so far back in the mix that the song barely has any energy to propel it in the first place. Similarly, the alluring fingerpicked guitar on Riding is fine enough, but the mix of the song is so dry and lacking before the chorus blows everything up in your face, it's by far one of the strangest mixes I've heard all year. Aries isn't all that sensual a vocalist either, and with a mix like this, hearing him say something like "Shimmy shimmy roll-up or sippy on Mimosa" is practically unbearable. Aries isn't a one-trick pony, but he's so all over the place thematically on Believe in Me... that all of the enjoyable songs end up sounding quite similar to one another because they have the power behind them to support his writing even at its stiffest. Exploring those themes is a matter of both figuring out what Aries is going for and why it doesn't often seem to connect. Using Kids on Molly as an example again, it seems to be his way of looking at drug use by both himself and the titular kids who may listen to his music, but it doesn't say anything about it in particular. "What surrounds me shattered, probably still gonna party," he says in the chorus, seemingly uninterested in looking at the reasons why drug use has become so widespread in these young groups. He doesn't need to go into depth about the root causes of drug use and addiction, but at least mentioning many of the common reasons for it (numbing, distractions, peer pressure) would have given some empathy to those kids in his song. Instead, all we find out is they have "nothin' to lose," which just isn't enough to be compelling. He seems to want to tackle his own feelings on power and influence on Fool's Gold, but with only two verses, there's not enough space for that to happen in such a short time span. Instead, he offhandedly mentions using money to replace other things in his life, and the rest of the song is satisfied for some vague questioning ("Have you seen a man down?", "How long can we dance for? / I got many plans") before dropping off at the 2:30 mark. I'm not a big fan of Aries' similes either, they don't add much to any of the songs and often are more confusing than anything else ("And you've been watchin', like a theater"? What?). His songwriting has never been the best part of his work, but it's less serviceable than ever here, and it's not all that fun to listen to a guy lay out his problems without some sort of introspection or resolution to them. Honestly, I'd rather him make a long Notes app vent and put that out instead. Maybe that's just me, though. I'd be lying if I didn't say these songs are quite hooky, even if it can get annoying; ETA's use of Spanish and a drowsy acoustic loop is impossibly unexciting, but his monotone croon of "E.T.A., I don't know" is melodic and catchy enough to grab my ear. Desperado, one of the album's best cuts, puts out one of his most memorable statements in any of his songs yet, belting "If our time expires, I'll never escape you!!!," his voice unstable and weary from heartbreak. It's one of the rare moments on Believe in Me... where his voice has some personality to it, even if the rest of the song is in his usual range of naturalistic crooning. In his attempt to find his own way to understand the carelessness of the universe, Aries seems to have lost himself in the journey. His heart is somewhere in this album, but it's impossible to find as a listener. The closest we get is glimpses at what it could look like in select songs, but that's not nearly as good as having the real Aries, always youthful and hurting, up in front of us.

Jeleel – Wunderworld Fest – The Fillmore – Philadelphia, PA – November 12, 2022

Photos by Nick Bruno © 2022

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Aries Wunderworld Ghost Tee T Shirt Adult Green XL Extra Large Cute Graphic.

Meet the Artists Playing Aries’ First-Ever Wunderworld Fest

Sorry Scorpios, but no matter what the stars currently say, it’s clearly Aries season. Of course, we’re talking about the genre-bending artist who has been making a splash online and offline in the period leading up to his highly-anticipated sophomore album, Believe in Me Who Believes in You. Following the announcement of a world tour that is already quickly on its way to selling out, Aries dropped another bombshell announcement with the news of his first-ever annual music festival.

TIckets for Wunderworld Fest can be purchased here.

Wunderworld Fest is set to bring Aries back to his hometown of Santa Ana, California on November 12 alongside some of the best genre-bending talent of recent memory, including tobi lou, brakence, Deb Never, SSGKobe, Tom the Mail Man, and Ramzoid. In anticipation of the first-ever annual Wunderworld Fest, we wanted to highlight the lineup in full before making our way to Wunderworld to experience it all for ourselves.

Ramzoid

Ramzoid’s origin story lies in both his native Prince Edward Island, Canada and the days of Soundcloud at its prime. Making a name for himself on the platform as one of its original stars with a host of million-stream racking remixes, he would go on to gain increased fame via his YouTube channel, which doubled as comedic relief and acute, tutorial music production insight. Yet, it’s his growing original discography that has us the most excited for Ramzoid. Bending lush electronic and hip-hop textures to his whim, it’s only a matter of time until Ramzoid gets his much-deserved spot in the sun.

Tom the Mail Man

Tom the Mail Man may not be able to deliver you your package in two days or less but what he can do is deliver an intoxicating, melancholic take on a genreless landscape. Emphatically avoiding putting a label on his music, the genre-spanning Georgia artist lets his music speak for itself, preferring to focus his attention on creating a world for his fans and him to come together. So, whether it be delving headfirst into emo-rap or exploring his alternative and pop sensibilities, Tom the Mail Man is sure to bring his all.

SSGKobe

SSGKobe seems simply incapable of missing. The rapidly rising rapper out of Centerville, Louisiana makes making waves feel like second nature, whether it be blowing up on TikTok and racking up streams in the millions or finding fans in the likes of Bella Hadid and Zack Bia. And who could blame the industry’s hottest trendsetters or his growing legion of devoted fans? With a sound that builds on early genre-definers like XXXTentacion only to skirt any and all expectations, it seems like the “Super Saiyan God” moniker isn’t just for show.

Deb Never

Deb Never’s music teeters on the edge of hopeless dread and euphoric optimism. It’s a series of bittersweet sonic revelations that owe as much to her upbringing in the Pacific Midwest as the host of bands that shaped the ‘90s indie landscape. First fully exploring this sentimental range on her critically-acclaimed debut EP, 2019’s House on Wheels, Never’s follow-up, her debut album, Where Have All The Flowers Gone?, saw her crystalizing this enthralling swirl of injured ruminations and nostalgic, affecting songwriting. In doing so, Never emerges as an artist more than capable of deftly exploring the human condition in unrelenting detail.

brakence

A lot can be said about hyperpop’s impressive ascent in the past few years, but no artist has his finger on the pulse of the rapidly evolving genre quite like brakence. Pulling more from the budding genre’s fascination with emo-rap, the Ohio native’s music plays out with an existential and apocalyptic fervor. Over pained lyrics that surge toward inevitable catharsis, hypnotic guitar loops, and production that skitters between trap and alternative, brakence regularly bares his heart and soul to infectious effect. The result is a genre-blurring artist with seemingly limitless potential.

tobi lou

“Just Keep Going.” It’s the mantra that fuels every piece of tobi lou’s kaleidoscopic vision. Informed by the sounds of his native Chicago but ultimately inspired the individualistic, relentless creative hunger of Kanye West, tobi would find a kindred spirit, igniting the first spark in what is now one-of-a-kind project that blurs the line between woozy hip-hop and dreamlike R&B. Look no further than his Adventure Zone-inspired breakout single “Buff Baby” or his recent slew of singles to cue you into what exactly makes tobi an artist to keep on your radar.

Aries

Little surprise here but the artist headlining Aries’ first-ever annual Wunderworld Fest is none other than Aries. The genre-bending purveyor originally made a name for himself posting YouTube remixes and reimaginings that did away with the very idea of genre—from turning Migos into a Mariachi band to bringing Childish Gambino into the world of lofi hip-hop—and has since gone on to establish himself as an enviable tour de force in music’s next wave. Whether it be on his acclaimed debut project Welcome Home or his forthcoming highly-anticipated follow-up Believe in Me Who Believes in You, set to release November 12, Aries’ dizzying amalgamation of emo-rap, sun-soaked alternative, anti-pop, and forward-thinking nostalgia is nothing short of intoxicating.

[ i am online ] =] 

Reach for what you love, and you will obtain it.