Keez - Water Creatures (Self-Released)

Keez is the project of Bend, Oregon musician and producer Brad Jones. His music has been featured in trailers for films like Ant-Man and Neighbors, and he has recently put out his new album, Water Creatures. The record is full of a fantastic blend of various genres; including soul, hip hop, and even reggae.

Songs like “Killed4Profit,” and “The Game” are slick and stylized R&B, but they’re synthetic and feel eerily sterile—like a choir of robotic computers composing soul music. It’s as chilling as it is icy, and it works fantastically. David Bowie had a similar idea on Station to Station, and so did Heaven 17, but Keez has just followed the idea to its natural and ultimate progression. It’s like Kraftwerk gone disco.

Other songs are pure synthpop, like “Whiskey,” but everything above all remains highly danceable. The reggae influence factors into songs such as “Wake Up Calm,” and “Paradise.” The album is already so packed full of other styles pulled off more successfully, that it’s inevitable these divergences feel a little unnecessary, but his highly stylistic vision carries over regardless.

Water Creatures occasionally feels like a collection of disparate songs, but it’s a collection where every single song pretty much has the potential to be a hit. The album is currently available from Keez’s Bandcamp.