‘Summer’s Over’ is a perfect fusion of things. A coming together of different languages, cultures, genres, and feelings, guided by Joash‘s icy vibes. There’s something playful about feeling the chase amongst chill strings and the tension he creates between his flows. Each track in the EP depicts a new stage in a relationship throughout the pandemic and you can feel its growth and decline in every temor.
The first track on the EP, ‘Naal Nachda’, burst through our speakers with West Coast Hip Hop energy fused with deep dripping vocals of Dadaflow‘s voice, alongside Punjabi lyrics that ring true in parts of all of us. His words tell the familiar story of falling for a girl in the chase of the night, the two languages drip like tributaries into a stream as Joash asks ‘Don’t stay far from me (Aiven dhoor na tu khar) I just need you right here’.
The next song, ‘Come Thru’, starts with a delicate piano; a tone that sounds chill but immediately develops more depth, more heaviness to it, like magnetic lyrics cutting through glass keys of piano. As Joash sings ‘I see the stars in your eyes, and the moon in your face’, we are in the sky feeling this euphoria with him. Reflecting into something, coming through, shining the feelings in this slick little tune.
‘Falling’ hits like a thud in the chest, a drop from paradise as the story continues to descend with the disintegration of the relationship. He sings ‘Jadon tenu chadiya mein (Translation: Since I left you) / I don’t feel the same’. It’s almost like he is using his language to find truths, to communicate things that can’t be plainly said. Between slow mo synths we are suspended in the air with Joash’s anxiety. Then fall with Joash through Afrobeat tempos.
Last song, ‘Still Mine’, ends with both a distance and a want to be close at same time. Joash sings ‘See even when you his/ Girl you’re still mine/ He don’t know your tricks’ and drips Punjabi through sitar and electronic breakdowns ina way that almost makes a new language.
This language, it seems to mean more when it is spoken by Joash. I’ve never listened to music like this before, hearing phonically beautiful words that I don’t understand but I know mean more than the English language can interpret. But, Like I said, Summers Over is a fusion of things. It’s Mancunian and Punjabi, R&B and Bhangra, chill and intense. I have never heard music going in a direction like this before, but I know it’s the future of music.
