Meagan Rodriguez aka QRTR has released her new album infina ad nausea. The sophomore project comes just a year and a half after her debut Drenched in March 2020, right when the world went to shit. She used the time in quarantine to get back to making music, unearthing some older demos from as far back as 2017. She pulled from field recordings captured at Notre Dame in Paris in 2018 (the fire was in 2019), which you can hear on “Nossa” especially, as well as field recordings from the Catskills, New York in 2020.
In the digital age of streaming, you need a hook to get people into your record. QRTR uses her ace in hole with the biggest possible collaboration she has at her disposal on her first track “The Outer Edge.” The fluffy producer dynamo ambientkitty, who found time in between very important naps, joins her on the opener. On the rest of the record, Rodriguez also worked with LA-based electronic producer and vocalist artemis orion, plus New York artists Braille, Daniel de Lara, and CSLTY.
The project exudes a cool, chilled temperament, combining ambient, house, bass music and drum and bass. It never peaks with too much force, but provides some danceable grooves on tracks like the two-stepping “With You” or “Fractals” with its heavy kick and kaleidoscopic synth melodies that break and come back together in an instant. With CSLTY, she adds a little extra spice to the album on the drum and bass track “Ritual.”
Album Review: QRTR – infina ad nausea
The Director's Cut: GARZA – Daydream Accelerator (Track-By-Track Breakdown)
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QRTR delivers nice balance to the record with house, chilled (but not too chilled) ambient tracks and then some bass music that all blend very well together. The features add some vocals and / or magic in the case of ambientkitty. Make sure you pick this up via Dome Of Doom so ambientkitty can have more treats. QRTR is going on tour to end the year, including a party in Brooklyn tomorrow evening, plus a release party on September 12, so check out her website for dates.
