Cashmere Cat Wedding Bells EP Review

Without a doubt, Cashmere Cat has quickly become one of the most exciting faces in experimental music, and mostly notably, collaborated with Ludacris, Wiz Khalifa, Banks and Ariana Grande early this year. Having come off a long stretch of remixes, radio shows and club sets, Norwegian producer Magnus Høiberg has polarized the critical community with his latest EP Wedding Bells, with pseudo-tastemaker Pitchfork notably calling it a failed effort to evolve on his genre-bending debut Mirror Maru. However, these criticisms couldn’t be more off point. The whole EP is terrifyingly accomplished, with genius at work in every nanosecond of detail. To anyone weary of all the fanfare given to the chart-topping DJs, this might just be your lifeboat.
         

While experimenting with the lifelike timbres, he stretches his wordless vocal samples to breaking point. The effect is disorienting and queasy - on "Pearls," the layered high-and-low voices sound like something from a horror movie, in complete contrast to the fanfare of flutes and brass around it.

In spite of these eccentric touches, Wedding Bells has an air of opulence. It is refreshing to see an artist, especially who has achieved EDM stardom, to be more about delaying pleasure rather than instant gratification. Right down to the choice of his stage name, Cashmere Cat seems to be invested in making music that is luxurious yet accessible, original yet unafraid of its cutesy pop inclinations and all the while confident in its own idiosyncrasies. How long this approach will remain fresh or whether Hoiberg can maintain the quality of his productions after the novelty wears off are questions for later records.