Back in 2022, we featured Luffon Bright, the debut EP by Photokem. At that point, only one member of the recent UT-Austin graduates—Nana Acheampong (vocals), Nico Fennell (instrumentals/production), Jack Kelly (instrumentals) and Evan Ryckebusch (cello/bass)—had played in a band before, and lead Acheampong had never sung in public. But it didn’t seem to matter. The EP, “mov[ed] from quiet folk and emo-inflected rock to vivid orchestral swells,” as we put it, “all tied together by Acheampong’s conversational yet striking delivery.”
It was a release of impressive freedom and real promise, something Photokem are now looking to build on with the release of their second EP, Half Ton Pet. They released lead single, the warm and laidback acoustic pop song ‘Gillie’, a few weeks back, and have now followed up with the title track. Multilayered and poignant, the song brings together piano and electronic beats and Acheampong’s weary but affecting vocals. The result is something like a slightly more low-key and raw take on the kaleidoscopic pop of Justin Vernon’s later work, treading the line between melancholic and joyful as it snakes through peaks and troughs and moments of film-grained negative space.
Cover art by Julio Moreno