The first thing you hear is a vocal sample flipped so hard it takes a second to register there’s a human under there, and that little disorientation is the hook before the actual hook arrives. V. Christie builds “Say You Love Me” around that chopped voice, pitching and stretching it until it’s basically another synth, and the effect is genuinely lovely — pop songwriting smuggled inside a dancefloor track. About a minute in the drums finally commit and it turns into a proper future-bass-leaning banger, all wide chords and a warm wobble sitting on the low mids. This is another NCS find, and it’s proof the label’s roster has come a long way from its early days of interchangeable drop fodder. The way the vocal keeps mutating means you never quite get bored of the same three words. I’ve had “say you love me” stuck in my head for two days, stretched and pitched and following me to the bus stop. It’s the good kind of earworm, the sort you don’t resent. Whatever V. Christie is doing with vocals, I want a lot more of it.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.