This Is Our Jam: Balam Acab, “Oh, Why”

Balam Acab arrived last year with a rising tide of artists loosely tied together by their use of heavy synths, obscured vocals, and gloomy atmospherics. Yet, Balam Acab—a.k.a. 20 year-old music student, Alec Koone - has a composer’s eye for arrangement that is more philosophically akin to Grouper or The Books than the codeine-guzzling gloom of a band like Salem. “Oh, Why” is a careful pastiche that is both shadowy and delicate, but hardly gothic. Bodiless vocal samples are pitched both up and down to create an ethereal soulfulness that overwhelms but doesn't bludgeon; Rather than recalling the occult, Balam Acab's ephemeral collage is melancholic and comforting. "Oh, Why" drips with an emotionality that is executed with technical virtuosity. (Stereogum)