The acclaimed alternative king of vibrato, zubin, anoints us with his celestial voice in his latest project, heavy down pour. As the title suggests, the six-track collection is considerably laden with complicated emotions, intricate poetry, and choice collaboration. It’s a soft burden one wants to carry in his ears and heart, listening to the point of emotional breakthrough (thanks to mixing and mastering by Travis Richter). heavy down pour brings a powerful storm that, in its finale, clears the air and helps us see and breathe a little better.
Zubin’s standalone timbre deserves a trademark. The Philadelphia native is successful not just for his musical talent but for the rarity of voice in which we find few others in the scene. Captivating intrigued listeners since 2015, zubin draws us into this project with his subtle charm and sage relatability. Like gates opening towards the light, dying slow (prod. death_fm) beckons us in with ambience that’s haunting but not ominous. The song is a slow, misty march towards the heart of the collection.
stay down (prod. nedarb & suicideyear) feels like purgatory’s waiting room. The instrumentals are calculatingly uncertain, demonstrating the difficulty of walking away from that which oppresses you. The pain is palpable when zubin says he wants to “get up and walk away…. just to walk through hell again.” It can initially hurt to separate oneself from a source of pain, until enough distance is given and the decision seems increasingly rational. Such strain flows into and picks up in sinking (feat. Slug Christ & smrtdeath). Produced by zubin, the song expresses grievances of wasted time and unforgivable heartbreak.
Excitement around dark alley most likely stems from its stimulating features (Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Alice Glass) and production by fish narc. It’s an innovative song, having more structured rhythm than its fellow tracks and a diverse range of vocal talent. Wicca adds elegant depth and Alice brings a crystalline touch. The dark alley is “where you’ll find [zubin], left alone and broken with my hands up to the sky.”
Zubin embraces the warmth of his artistic spotlight in the self-produced sidelines. Perhaps the most wrenching song on heavy down pour, the song outlines what it feels like for someone to fall out of your life. Reconciling with what once was versus how feelings play out presently is difficult, and we hear more of this agony in the closing title track, heavy down pour (prod. nedarb & clams casino). It’s like opening a hymnal and piecing together the passages; audibly stretched-out pain weaves the lyrics together in a final acquiescence.
A listen through heavy down pour elicits feelings of walking through the storm as zubin’s caressing voice guides us home. There’s an unmistakeable presence of pain and affliction but not so that listeners leave with the looming rain cloud. Through his artistry, energy, and movement of emotion through music, zubin continues to grace us. Considering his history of collaborators and prominent acclaim, there’s reason to believe we’ll hear more of the seraphic singer soon.