Sometimes I step away from the genres of music that simply entertain or soothe, and I look for something original—music that can actually talk to me. Music where you can catch your deepest feelings. And it seems I’ve found exactly what fits those requirements. I came across the EP “halfen” by Almost Morning, a New York-based artist who seems to have learned how to turn melancholy into a tangible, physical matter.
Listening to this EP, I found myself thinking that it feels like an intimate monologue recorded in the dim light of a home studio somewhere in the middle of a nighttime metropolis. The artist herself admits she created these sounds during a period of creative burnout, and you can feel it in every breath, in every pause. I’d call it a “soft collapse”—that moment when reaching out becomes impossible, and you choose silence instead.
A Kaleidoscope of Experimental Intimacy
What struck me most is how Almost Morning juggles genres while maintaining a complete atmospheric unity. Every track here is like a separate pearl, reflecting light from its own unique angle.
- “sad!” greets us with an art-pop structure, but with a sub-bass so heavy it’s felt deep in the chest. It’s not the kind of sad song you want to cry to, but its sound is grounding.
- The central track, “talk to you,” is a true meditation. It resembles afrobeats, but is stripped down to the bone. The vocals here are like the movement of air, softly whispering mantras.
- “let it” plunges you into a world of downtempo with ethereal melodies, while “4ever a one” unexpectedly leans toward lo-fi hip-hop, yet never loses that signature depth of low frequencies.
- The track “ouroboros” is equally impressive. This is trap in its most intellectual and minimalist form. The words “I don’t feel better like that… She move slow, but she bite back” repeat over and over, creating the effect of an ouroboros—an endless cycle of internal struggle.
- Closing the experience is “wake”—a fragile mix of electronica and chillstep that sounds like a plea for help, a wish for someone to help break this circle of loneliness.
The Voice of a Generation Tired of the Noise
Personally, my favorite was “h8 missing you.” Here, afrobeats intertwine with the melodics of ambient pads, while the artist’s piercing vocals become almost unbearably sincere.
I feel that halfen is an album that will resonate deeply with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. We live in an era of hyper-communication where we are constantly expected to be “loud,” active, and engaged. Almost Morning takes a radical step in the opposite direction. She chooses minimalism, restraint, and honesty. Her lyrics are short, simple mantra-like phrases that hit the mark precisely because they are devoid of pretense.
This is an album about the right to be alone. About how sometimes the best way to find a path is to walk through your own darkness without trying to decorate it. Almost Morning’s music doesn’t provide ready-made answers or promise that everything will instantly get better. It simply says: “I feel the same way. You are not alone in your silence.”
