Listen: Maldonado – Seraphim

Perhaps suitably, considering the ghostly spectrality of Project Maldonado’s ethereal take on R&B, they seem content to stay in the shadows.

Reportedly the new venture from Liam Bailey, the relatively up-and-coming vocalist best known for his takes on Chase & Status singles ‘Blind Faith’ and ‘Big Man’, Maldonado came into being backed by four tracks, a short story, and a teaser video full of intertwined, faceless, naked bodies. The vocals are the undeniable focus here, haunted with the nocturnal, and writhing with its own sense of self-loathing. With only a subtle pulse, synth shimmer, and wailing police sirens for company, Bailey conjures up the atmosphere of the lonely trudge home through the twilight hour, around the refrain of “the devil does to me what joy does to sorrow”. Rather than building to a climax, the track’s soulful desperation throbs on the same plane, before disappearing into the night. The drugged haze of its post-hedonistic wallow probably doesn’t bode well for the morning.