Swedish rapper, singer and producer Benjamin "Bladee" Reichwald, a member of Sweden's Drain Gang with rappers
Ecco2k
and
Thaiboy Digital
and producer Ludwig "Whitearmor" Rosenberg,
specialized in autotuned vocals over playful synths and trap beats.
Ecco2k and Bladee debuted with the Whitearmor-produced Bleach (2013),
not particularly original and very "lo-fi" (certainly less interesting than Yung Lean's contemporary single Ginseng Strip 2002), but
Bladee and the producer soon established their original style on the
nine-song mixtape Gluee (2014).
Deletee and Freeze weave complex vocal harmonies that reinvent the vocal polyphony of the Renaissance and/or of the doo-wop.
The mood ranges from the ethereal lullaby Shadowface to the cheerful and upbeat Ebay, always with simple repeated melodic phrases.
Spellbound borders on vaporwave and
Unreal juxtaposes Bladee's drugged icy subhuman wail with a synth melody that harks back to synth-pop of the 1980s.
The 12-song Eversince (2016) is much more trivial, and the weaker
material ends up unmasking how
monotonous the singing (or babbling) is and how repetitive the melodies are.
His signature song Lovenote sounds like a bad cover of Eddy Grant's Electric Avenue or a robotic remix of a Pet Shop Boys
ballad.
The spastic waltz of Who Goes There and the romantic carillon of Romeo are the melodic highlights, but that's not to say much because
some of his litanies are unbearable.
On the other hand, songs like Sick (almost a funeral chant),
Rip (so dejected to recall Lil Peep-ian emo-rap) and Skin (the sound of a suicide note)
paint a poignant portrait of melancholy introversion. It is debatable if
the trap beats and the autotune enhance or hamper the experience.
50SACINMYSOCIDGAF (2016), with a dramatic orchestral background, was perhaps the best of the collaborations between Bladee and Yung Lean.
The nine-song mixtape Working on Dying (2017) contains a few user-friendly ditties amid the usual repetitive filler.
Redlight Moments is just orchestral pop in disguise.
Cherry Bracelets is a nursery rhyme for children with a harpsichord-like loop.
The most supernatural moment comes in Best Buy, which pits a real rap against the carillon of a church bells that gets slowed down and warped until it stops, as if simulating death.
The compilation D&G (2017) shared with Ecco2k and Thaiboy Digital mainly contains a bunch of Bladee leftovers.
The 19-song mixtape Icedancer (2018) perfects his fusion of
trap and drum'n'bass, but, more importantly, perfects his fusion of
mumble rap, confessional singer-songwriter and soul crooning in songs
such as
SmartWater, Close and the piano-based Topman,
while indulging in childish singalongs such as Frosty the Snowman
and the organ-tinged Anything. And finally his
smooth melisma (inherited from black soul singers of the 1950s) glides on
songs such as Side by Side.
The album
Red Light (Year0001, 2018)
is dominated by fragile ditties, barely sung children's rigmaroles,
like Golden Boy, Westfield and That Thing you Do.
It feels like the same song mumbled over and over again.
The variations are minimal in both directions
1D, Decay and Obedient,
with slightly more lively sing-rapping and robust trap beats,
target the dancefloor.
A bit more pathos and a soundscape that is a bit more mysterious are
enough to make Fake News sound different; and
Nike Just Do It becomes unique because of a slower delivery and an irregular tempo; and
the slower ethereal Puppetmaster, wrapped in cosmic drones, ends up
sounding like a breath of fresh air.
These are mantras repeated in a monk's cell in order to escape a painful
earthly existence.
Trash Island (2019) was another disappointing compilation of tracks by Bladee, Ecco2k and Thaiboy Digital.
After the short and blissful mixtape Exeter (2020), that contains
ephemeral ethereal melodies, evoking the world of fairy tales,
produced by Micke "Gud" Berlander,
like Lovestory (a collaboration with Ecco2K),
Bladee and Whitearmor crafted the album
333 (2020), blending trap with ambient, folk and psychedelia.
Next to autotuned trap bangers like Don't Worry we find
the soothing refrain of Only One (with Celtic guitar) and several
dreamy lullabies.
Whitearmor's eccentric beats inject a pulsing life into the likes of 100s
and Innocent of all Things.
Half of the album is filler, but the songs that work make this album a return to form.
The most successful of Bladee's and Ecco2k's collaboration was the catchy and propulsive synth-pop ditty Girls Just Want to Have Fun (2020).
