— 01 Aug 2018 —

Written by Charlie Harver

Every now and then, a new artist emerges from seemingly nowhere, feeling completely disconnected from everything else hovering around the current sonic landscape. So goes Channel Tres, former songwriter for the likes of Duckworth and Kehlani. The difference here is rarely has an artist arrived so fully-formed. After his cult-hit ‘Controller’, Tres drops his self-produced EP. It’s glorious summertime driving music, but it also announces an artist with an uncommonly magnetic confidence. You’ve only just discovered him, but he knows he’s been good for a while.

EP is an unsurprisingly short affair, passing by with five tracks, but it acts as the perfect introduction to Tres. The Compton artist is signed to Godmode – the label started in 2017 by major label A&R Talya Elitzer and former Pitchfork editor Nick Sylvester and that notably boasts Shamir as a signee. Like Shamir, Tres strikes a few familiar chords but ultimately feels peculiarly organic.

There are a few different strings being pulled at once here that simply work. It starts with Tres’ smooth baritone hum. He knows how to tame it well, making it sound particularly sleazy when he needs it to (“fall back, nigga you ain’t got no cash/your bitch gone, yeah I took it and I smash”). Like a young, effortless Barry White lounging in the corner of the strip club at 2:00am. It exudes charisma.

The other key quality is Tres’ Sylvester-assisted production. Elements of Chicago/Detroit house, 90s R&B and dance music seep into the tracks. Plinking synths and bass lines, particularly on ‘Jet Black’ and ‘Topdown’, make the tracks feel like they’re see-sawing on a gold-plated balance beam. These are assertive, foot-pounding songs a world away from the mushy alternative-R&B that has dominated music for years now. Tres keeps his lyrics deep in the brash realm of hip-hop (“your body is a game/fuck the lames/fuck the fame/I am the controller”).

EP  ends with ‘Glide’, arguably the most ambitious track on this sweet-short affair. Tres flexes his writing muscles ever-so-slightly (“hopped the fence for that greener grass/fuck the slums we ain’t goin’ back”) and the production is much more heady. The first half features a pulsating deep synth before he opens into a falsetto in the back half wailing ‘gliiiiide’, the synths start pulsing more vibrantly and the percussion smatters across his voice. It feels like a mouth-watering teaser to greater things for an artist who only recently was trying to become a touring EDM DJ, and is probably still working out what works and what doesn’t.

EP starts and ends with the same refrain – (“once more…so we…can feel…complete”). It’s a fitting phrase evoking the sentiment that comes through when you listen to Tres’ music. As the production oozes deeper into its grooves and Tres sounds more and more confident in his delivery you close your eyes and bask in his conviction. This is infinitely pleasurable, unusually assured listening. He’s only given something of a snippet here, but it’ll undoubtedly send music nerds into overdrive. No one’s making music like this in 2018.

7.6