Earlier in the month, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley, the American funk-rock trio collectively known as N*E*R*D, hosted a listening party for their forthcoming new album No_One Ever Really Dies at ComplexCon in Los Angeles. While their lead single ‘Lemon’ (feat Rihanna) combines their signature funky shuffle and rowdy rock energy with touches of modern trap music, you can hear touches of N*E*R*D’s funk-rock pop in ‘Overlap,’ the latest drop from Auckland-based indie hip-hop quartet Balu Brigada.
‘Overlap’ comes packaged with a music video supported by NZ on Air, but let’s tackle the music first. Last time we sniffed Balu Brigada, they fused Kiwi reggae and EDM grooves with a post-Frank Ocean RnB hook and filtered late-night telephone call raps. This time, they’ve dressed up a snappy funk breakbeat with lush synth pads, a soaring lovesick chorus, and semi-rapped/semi-chanted verses. Collectively, the song’s elements dovetail together to tell a story about making mistakes in love, the classic late night DM slide, and lucid reflection in the days after. It’s the same sort of space Balu Brigada were mining with ‘Could You Not,’ but their detailing is becoming increasingly refined. Equally, the pop-potential of their songwriting has only continued to expand. They’ve got a summer hit on their hands here.
Visually, ‘Overlap’s music video is an exercise in lush color-blocking and symbolism shot by Taylor Mansfield and Nick Chrisp. Almost every scene looks as framed up as 100+ like Instagram photo, or a heavily reblogged throwback post on Tumblr. Colourful sheets blowing on the washing line, groups of well-dressed girls lounging in a retro-living room, the lads munching fruit at a table, all flowing fluidly together in a style as much about creating striking moments as fleshing out the emotional impact of the song. If Balu Brigada keeps coming through like this, we’ll be seeing them on bigger stages sooner than we think.
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