When the strongly nautical “Vanisher, Horizon Scraper” by Quadeca released this summer, I was as landlocked as one could be. It was a few minutes past midnight, and I had just returned from a movie night at a friend’s apartment to my parking spot on the fourth floor of GSU’s parking garage. In six hours, my alarm would go off, and I would have to get ready for work. Sleep was long overdue. However, on my phone’s glowing screen, the notification for the release of Quadeca’s newest album had just arisen. I weighed my options for a moment, and then sat back in my Honda’s drab interior and queued the first song.
The anticipation for Benjamin Lasky’s fourth studio album had accumulated for a year and a half. “Vanisher” had first been announced in February of 2024, followed by radio silence for the next year and speculation that the album would never be finished. On the fourth floor of Georgia State’s parking garage,however, the project became real. I had made the right decision.
“NO QUESTIONS ASKED” kicks off the album with six minutes of tinny guitar plucks, piano, and layered vocals, setting the atmosphere of the album. Building arpeggios that crash like a wave into scattered drums and cymbals illuminate “WAGING WAR”. The next track, “RUIN MY LIFE”, is emblematic of the artist’s own career, with lines arguing for the acceptance of imperfection in service of authenticity.
The Bay Area native began his time in the public eye with videos reacting to the soccer video game FIFA, before turning his attention to music. Quadeca’s first two albums centered around lyrical rap, and while exhibiting early signs of his producer chops, were not my favorite. However, the artist’s 2022 project, “I Didn’t Mean to Haunt You”, showed a complete evolution in quality. Lasky was crafting a cohesive narrative around ghosts and grief, developing eerie art and glitch pop instrumentals, and gaining the cosign of rapper Danny Brown. He had taken a creative risk, and it had produced something singular.
Quadeca followed this release with a mixtape of songs that didn’t make the cut in 2024 under the name “Scrapyard”. This was Quadeca’s most positively received release yet, garnering a #10 spot in Album of the Year’s 2024 user score ranking. “Scrapyard” featured more sincere songwriting than had been seen from the artist previously, delivered with soft vocals surrounded by harsh and weird electronic production. Quadeca’s collaboration with Kevin Abstract on the tail end of the album was a high point of the mixtape, and indicative of greater things to come, such as their collaboration on this past June’s “Blush”.
The three singles that Lasky dropped in anticipation of this most recent project are some of the album’s best. “MONDAY” is an upbeat track with plucked cello and cascading piano, and “FOREGONE” is reminiscent of a church hymnal, except that its devotion is levied at an individual rather than the divine. On the topic of the divine, “GODSTAINED” was the first track to be released, with Bossa Nova styled flute and drums creating a supremely summery environment for ponderings on fate and free will.
Each song on the project is its own distinct world, and Quadeca straddles several genres, with a very specific creative vision that succeeds in most of its intentions. “THUNDRRR” is a feverish push for air amidst tumultuous sea, accented with discordant mandolin notes and synths. Meanwhile, the Homeric track “THE GREAT BAKUNAWA” features Danny Brown rapping from the perspective of a mythical sea monster.
That being said, there are times when this creative vision does not meet its mark in my eyes. “THAT’S WHY” sees the artist go introspective into darker themes before resolving that “It don't get any better than this”. This song felt more reminiscent of the forced edge that Quadeca had tried to adopt on his early projects, and took me out slightly of the otherwise epic and sweeping tracklist. By the same token, “I DREAM ABOUT SINKING” was an ambient instrumental that, while developing the tone of the album, dragged on too long for me.
These are minor complaints. As a whole, the album marks an astronomical shift for the 24-year-old. In fact, part of his appeal is how clear this shift has been. Quadeca’s 2019 “Voice Memos” and the mixtapes that preceded it were very similar to the work of other artists at the time and felt very much like they had been made by a 17 year old. Yet, like a little cousin that you don’t see for a few years and then is suddenly working at a hedge fund, Quadeca’s musical prowess has become professional out of nowhere. These most recent projects are fleshed out thematically, lush, and truly pieces of media that could not have come from anyone else. I, for one, cannot wait to see what is next.
Gus Morrill '27 (he/him) is an Arts & Culture Editor.
He is a Comparative Literature Major with a focus in Spanish and Arabic. Outside of The Campus he is also involved with Matriculate, the Blackbird Literary Arts Journal, Club Jiu-Jitsu, and Middlebury Discount Comedy. In his free time you can find him knitting, listening to music, or watching his favorite soccer teams lose.
