Listen: J Fernandez - "Close Your Eyes"

07 October 2014, 13:45 | Written by Jon Putnam

(Tracks)

We here at Best Fit fall all over ourselves to find you the best and most interesting new cuts pop/rock and all its mongrel subgenres have to offer. The increasingly omnipresent, fractious nature of pop/rock is a catch-22; while it is conducive to a sustained push for innovation, the sheer volume of material available these days lends itself to always feeling like you’ve heard something somewhere else before.

So, it’s always a delight to unearth something that does sound truly different; off the wall while still in the ballpark. Chicago musician J (Jason) Fernandez produces a brand of keyboard-based avant-pop that, on one hand, breeds familiarity in its oblique references to well-established subgenres while still managing to sound uniquely fresh.

Fernandez’s latest single from his upcoming EP, “Close Your Eyes”, is built on a winding, springy keyboard riff that’s continually thrown off-kilter with dashes of instrumental asides and tempo changes. Vocally, Fernandez intones in a narcoleptic reverb, including a West Coast nod on the outro by way of some molasses-drenched “ba ba ba”s.

The Memorize Now EP releases 14 October courtesy of Atelier Ciseaux records and can be pre-ordered digitally and limited edition vinyl here.