
German producer and songwriter Mechatok announced his debut album ‘Wide Awake’ set for release on 8 August. The hip-hop artist dropped a track from the album yesterday, ‘Expression On Your Face’ in collaboration with British singer-songwriter Ecco2k and Swedish singer and rapper Bladee. The song was shared with a fresh new music video.
The hyperactive cloud rap song features a glitchy hyperpop, digital sound which his collaborators are known for. The song begins with Bladee’s distorted emo rap style over Mechatok’s animated beat. Ecco2k then cuts through with breathy emotion for his verse before the three come together for the end of the song in which the video shows them capturing Mechatok and standing over him with a hammer.
The video has been widely praised by fans for its artsy ambition. Many have said this is their favourite music video from Drain Gang, made up of Ecco2k, Bladee, Thaiboy Digital and Whitearmor.
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Drain Gang have been making music collaboratively and individually since 2013, though Mechatok has recently begun collaborating with two members from the group since his last collaborative album with Bladee ‘Good Luck’ in 2021. The album reached massive popularity for the artist as he released one of his most popular songs ‘Drama’ with over 7 million listens on Spotify.
This year, he released his single ‘MAKKA’ featuring fakemink and Ecco2k, signifying his change in direction from previous EPs such as ‘All My Time’, a solo produced digital collection of lo-fi, hyperpop blends. Mechatok put on his event Natural Mind this month where the artists performed a live rendition of ‘MAKKA’
The Stockholm-born, British based artist Ecco2k shared his thoughts on creativity in an interview with 032c. He described his last solo EP ‘PXE’ in 2021 as “throwing a car battery into a washing machine,” though the change in sound was inevitable as he explains how he came to discover what he wanted his music to say. Ecco2k went on to say about the album, “It made me re-evaluate a lot of my personality and why I am the way that I am. This change happened to come about because of a thousand different factors. It was just time for it to happen.”
The album has some complex ideas around personhood, capitalism and authenticity. He shared his reflection on inner-conflict presented in the album, sharing “Sometimes it sounds like 50 people shouting at each other in my head, but it’s still a monologue. It’s still you.”
Meanwhile, Bladee and Mechatok spoke techno-spirituality that same year with BOMB magazine. Bladee explained his definition of spirituality, saying “I’m trying to make it up myself […] I was able to build these worlds or universes in my music and to create within this kind of universe myself.” Mechatok went on to affirm this, saying “It’s a lot about creating, spawning things, as opposed to following a set of rules.”
The collaboration between Mechatok, Ecco2k and Bladee was bound to happen with the creative direction of all three artists and fans are excited for potential further collaborations to come.