Bedroom indie producers b7lanket and Luko M have joined up for Home team, an EP-sized mixtape self-released on April 6 and available on SoundCloud and Nina Protocol. Their first collaboration is steeped in childhood nostalgia, creating a miniature world that revolves around sports practice and a carefree curiosity for the world around you. This is apparent from the cover art alone: a blurry photo of a foosball figure eying down a soccer ball, pinned to a bulletin board. It’s a soccer game of sorts, yes, but it’s been so abstracted that it enters this distant, artificial state somewhere just beyond reality.
“Birdhouse” sets the tone with a minimal, downsampled drum break, joined after two bars by gentle synth warbles, buzzing bass, and unobtrusive acoustic guitar strumming. b7lanket’s vocals, upon first listen, produce a subtle shock akin to getting your wisdom teeth removed: the impact numbed to the point that you experience it with a dreamy disconnect. His voice is pitched up to an absurd degree, but without the grating quality of Alvin and the Chipmunks or 100 gecs.
Instead, b7lanket’s delivery resembles the soft, androgynous cooing of a forest sprite or the warm delicacy of a lullaby: surreal, but not painful. Bringing us back down to earth is Luko M, with his somewhat off-pitch, lisping singing. This formula, with the two trading off vocal duties over a cushion of digitally warped drums, lo-fi guitar, and cutesy synths, stays consistent for the rest of the tape’s six tracks.
On “Older,” b7lanket’s melancholy vocals are shrouded in reverb, as if they’re singing from somewhere just out of reach. Grounded by offbeat sampled “heys” and pitchshifted acoustic guitar, the song sits in a middle ground between the whimsical and the uncanny. There’s a feeling of buried longing on “Asleep awake,” with miasmic layers of bitcrushed synthesizers and a bubbling sine wave lead supporting his plaintive vocal melody.
While Luko M’s all-too-human whine doesn’t have quite the same draw as b7lanket, he serves as the perfect foil to his fairy-like companion, accentuating Home team’s sense of charming naivety. Besides, indie pop has a long legacy of amateur-sounding vocalists, from twee pop pioneer Calvin Johnson to Galaxie 500 and Luna’s Dean Wareham. In an era where “indie” has become more or less aligned with a mainstream perception of tastefulness, it’s refreshing to hear a singer who sounds sort of bad.
Halfway through “Asleep awake,” the beat drops away, leaving behind a swirling lo-bit synth texture and distant-sounding piano chords. After four bars, Luko M joins in, accompanied by clean guitar strumming and b7lanket’s nearly inaudible backing vocals. In a nod to the hyperpop and underground rap that doubtlessly inspired Home team’s production, Luko M’s vocals are now smeared with a heavy dose of autotune that further brings out his nasal twang. It’s here that all of the duo’s quirks align, to best exemplify what makes their sound so special: it’s synthetic yet warm, scrappy yet elegant, restrained yet colorful. For a first-time collaboration, Home team feels remarkably fleshed-out. Hopefully, it won’t be their last.
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