“You Said You’d Hold My Hand Through The Fire” is an immensely moving and lucid album, powerfully crafted and ultimately hopeful.
Collaboration between the Spanish producer New and the rapper Iceboy Violetwho have previously sprinkled their magic dust on the releases of Hyperdub of Aya and Loraine James.
The album traces the arc of a four-year relationship, in the words of Iceboy: “fondly commemorating its highs and documenting its lows, trying to process and reflect positively and then ending with the ecstatic but sinister spark of new love“. Between them they have made an album that is magical, intimate and heartfelt, sometimes distressing but ultimately charming.
Iceboy and Nueen coordinated their like-minded approach to making ambient music on recent solo releases and began brainstorming ideas for collaborations. Nueen sent out beats at an almost overwhelming pace, matching the speed and sharpness of Iceboy’s emotions as they processed the end of the aforementioned relationship, creating songs that helped them process and navigate through the mental fog. The tracks were finished with Iceboy coming in and chiseling the details, all finished in 3 months.
Nueen’s music responds with confusing but richly detailed grainy production. There are fuzzy, perforated rhythms contrasted with curdled, spiraling chords, and at times it seems to isolate elements of Burial’s palette and intensify them, like the fiery crackles of SM FID. At other times, she creates a malevolent atmosphere that feels elemental and unsettling like in Cement Skin. Friends and collaborators reworked some of these songs, with artist Harriet Morley providing the lead vocals on the album and Dawuna adding her silky, raspy background vocals around Still’s descriptions of black hair braiding and intimately intertwined lives. The album’s final song, Kiss Me Again, is blessed with young Manchester singer Bennett, who acts as a softening foil to Iceboy’s rough rapture.
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