Electronic artist Qrion is at her best musically when exploring the quieter, almost hidden side of the genre’s sound. It’s a little too precious to position something like Sink as an alternative to busy EDM — Qrion just played Hard Fest in California, so she isn’t existing in a whole different world — but she does offer a new angle on it, inverting structure but still generating the same thrills via space as a bass drop musters.
Just A Part Of Life, her new EP and first release in quite some time (and first following a relocation to California…we are invoking the rare “outside Japan clause” for this one), finds her continuing to explore this approach, while also adding a few new wrinkles. “Hush” builds around…well, hushed syllables…wrapping them around synth notes and a beat that skips ahead. It morphs and grows intensity, but never boils over, rather letting everything play out inside, leading to an upbeat but muted finale that ends things on a positive note. The second track, “T&C,” similarly builds around sliced-up vocals, but finds Qrion moving towards something more energetic, everything rumbling ahead and outright joyful. Listen above, or go here.