Gramatik fans are likely still digesting his poignant tribute to the late Aretha Franklin earlier this month – but before the soulful stylings of SB5 lands, the producer is changing gears with a joint track featuring recent REZZ collaborator Kotek. Named after the Russian blockchain titan of the same name, the single arrives on the artist’s own Lowtemp imprint. The collaborative effort incorporates some of the crispy electronic glitch of the beloved GRiZMATiK project, but with a dose of digital menace courtesy of Kotek’s signature sound.

The song’s brief intro, comprised of wailing electronic guitars and R&B keyboard arrangements, is familiar territory, but an ear-slapping snare and distorted sub bass soon bring the track into the electronic realm. The slinky syncopation evolves into a second chorus with a blatting horn section, before descending into a half-time beat that swaps blasts of Kotek distortion for Gramatik’s guitar stylings to close. According to Gramatik, the song’s distinct phases are no accident, providing some insight into the collaboration’s genesis via SoundCloud:

“Vitalik Buterin is a tribute to the founder of Ethereum and basically the sequel to Satoshi Nakamoto, except this time around, Kotek and I decided to make it an instrumetal journey. The song changes five times and keeps evolving beginning to end which is meant to symbolize the different stages of development and evolution of Ethereum and its ecosystem. We had so much fun making this tune and we sincerely hope that Vitalik likes it.”

Tags: collab, glitch, Grizmatik, kotek, SB5, Single

Categories: Music