Listen: Gilligan Moss – “Choreograph”

Chicago-based artist Gilligan Moss has released his second single “Choreograph”, the follow up to last summer’s “Hemlock”. Rippling off from the jagged rhythms and soulfully garbled vocals that so impressed on his first track, his second puts these under a spotlight, deconstructing and rearranging them in a way that produces a euphoric aural collage.

There are fleeting moments when the song feels almost overwhelmed by its own exuberance. Overlapping beats that manage to sound organically robotic play against interchangeably monastic and childlike vocal samples, all pulled together with a hefty dose of marimba. Its parts are purposefully awkward, and upon first listen the track feels like some mad amalgamation of several unrelated cuts. It’s a nod to his talent that Moss pulls it together, the genuine choreographer of the piece, although occasionally it feels like a platform to demonstrate his skills.

The final product is startlingly cohesive, not unlike its pixelated cover art; it only makes sense once you take a few steps back, at which point you can’t help but feel you’ve found some calm in the chaos.