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From <\/strong>Boston, via Texas Riya Mahesh has perfected her own sweet, whimsical brand of plunderphonics; her seventh project as Quiet Light in six years, this year\u2019s Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2, sounds a little as if it\u2019s been chopped together from samples of Mahesh\u2019s own memory. On Berlin, she sings to a wayward love interest over a moony breakbeat and IDM glitches, as a spoken-word part \u2013 what sounds to me like a recording of a lecture \u2013 floats in the background. Star100 starts all whispers and garbled laughter, before ceding space to Mahesh\u2019s multitracked harmonies. Sometimes, Mahesh will suddenly deliver a wildly catchy chorus, something she clearly has an aptitude for \u2013 check Dealerz, her collab with Danish band A Good Year.<\/p>\n Mahesh\u2019s music is avowedly feminine in its tone; she seems to advocate for sample-heavy music, as a form, as a perfect way to deconstruct and reconstruct fantasies and memories. True to that idea, Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2 is moody and magical, and recalls singer-songwriter projects such as Samia (in its vocals especially) and Pinegrove while also tapping into the exacting, dreamlike production of artists such as Grimes and Desire.<\/p>\n Mahesh was raised in Texas and played piano from a young age, thanks to the urging of her mother, a sitar player. She self-describes as \u201can insanely Texas girl\u201d \u2013 she was prom queen of her high school \u2013 but still wanted to play music when she graduated. After failing to get into Juilliard, the prestigious music college, she decided to pivot and currently balances medical school with her burgeoning music career. It\u2019s an unorthodox backdrop for unorthodox music, which splits the difference between dazed ambient production and big-tent pop melody as if it\u2019s nothing. Shaad D\u2019Souza<\/em><\/p>\n
Recommended if you like <\/strong>Grace Ives, Porter Robinson, Grimes
Up next<\/strong> Touring EU\/UK in November<\/p>\n