Back in 2017- Minneapolis-raised artist Jeremy Nutzman emerged with his debut project NCOD released under the moniker Velvet Negroni (a name inspired by a fancy cocktail at a bar in Austin). His unique soundscapes brought him to big audiences and bigger fans: sampled by Kanye West touring with Bon Iver and signed to 4AD for the release of his acclaimed 2019 album Neon Brown. A few years later he is gearing up for the release of his propulsive new album Bulli a record that trembles with a slick and polished new intensity following a relatively tumultuous life period. “I started using drugs again in a negative manner” he says “And felt like I lost all my friends or their respect. And then there was Covid and I was at home then my CashApp got hacked. And because of that I got paranoid as fuck for a long time and stayed in the house.” The result is an album on which Nutzman cannot fully hear himself. It glimmers with an almost-uncomfortable pop sheen with lead single ‘Sinker’ whirring with a strutting positivity and rich instrumentation that is at stark odds with the lyrics. Touchstones of leftfield electronic sounds meld with nods to alternative rock power pop even tender R&B and deft hip-hop. It’s a record that holds something anticipatory at times almost frantic and manic occasionally even sexy and breathy . Given the period of his life that it emerged from it’s understandable that Nutzman would feel fraught and uncertain listening back it’s a deeply accomplished album which swirls with fragmentary soundscapes pushing ever forward into somewhere that feels new and vital.