Meet flvmmingo, a Joburg native who has steadily been making a name for himself in his local scene. His latest offering is an R&B project titled Epitome on which he draws inspiration from numerous genres to prove himself an artist with potential.
Epitome in its entirety sounds like a lucid dream that plays out in chapters – with flvmmingo taking a page from a number of famous books to achieve his sound. Electronic music and R&B are the dominant genre influences, but there are also tinges of hip-hop that can be picked up. “Weighs Heavy On Me” leans on trap soul elements to elevate a ballad that sees someone begging to be loved. “Fever Dream” sounds like the love child of N.E.R.D’s early R&B material and certain aspects of Fever Ray’s “If I Had A Heart”. The mostly seamless genre bending is aided tremendously by the production quality of the album.
While Epitome is very impressive production wise, the vocal quality only does parts of the album justice, lapsing in moments where there seems to be a faltering in his delivery. This does not, however, have an overly negative impact on the body of work. The Kid Cudi-esque aspects of this album, such as on “Things Fall Apart” help elevate its style into something futuristic because of the atypical approach to R&B.
flvmmingo’s Epitome tells of love and loss by elevating R&B to different levels. The careful choice to incorporate certain elements into it makes it feel like an all-inclusive experience. And in going forward, with more emphasis on vocal delivery, flvmmigo may effortlessly rise through the ranks in the local pop and R&B circles.
Feature pic supplied by artist
