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Music

Sink in the Smirking Sorrow of Max McFerren's New Complete Walkthru Single

The Brooklyn producer's self-titled tape under his new moniker comes out this Friday, July 29.

Since 2014, Max McFerren's MCFERRDOG project has been responsible for pushing weirdo house music into a place that favors fun just as much as it does experimentation. So even though it's under a new moniker, Complete Walkthru, news that he's reunited with the vaunted Vancouver label 1080p is cause for celebration. The Brooklyn producer announced a self-titled tape earlier this month with a burbling single called "Blatant Doug," and he's back today with a spacier, sadder slice of the project called "Performative Grief."

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Though centered on a ghostly sampled stutter, the emotional weight of the track comes via a series of wandering synth lines that squiggle slowly across the mix. It'd be easy to get caught up in the delicate swoons and swells, if not for the grinning gleam that he lends some of his sounds. McFerren, never one to pass up a good gag, ballasts even these minor key excursions with the delicate punch of a goofy glissando and other lighthearted sounds. It's right there in the title. No matter how contemplative the melodies, this isn't just sorrow, but grief performed, an intentional artifice of agony. Or, like, the aural equivalent of ;(.

Listen here in advance of the July 29 release of Complete Walkthru on 1080p.