Andrew Veeder on January 15th, 2014

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At the age of 22, prolific Los Angeles-based artist Hal Williams has been concocting beats and crafting rhymes for over half his life. Growing up in Atlanta, he started the hip-hop collective NRK (Nobody Really Knows) in high school, and later hooked up with Odd Future’s Matt Martians to form the production outfit Jet Age of Tomorrow. He has also released a slew of material under the moniker Pyramid Vritra, and is set to unveil the 16-track album “Indra” on Feb. 18 via Stones Throw. The first single from the project is “Tea & Lemonade” – built over a repetitive bass guitar strum with a distorted resonance, the track thumps with a mix of deep, low and hard-hitting beats, and swells with synth that surges melodically, with Williams’ rhymes washed in and out of the production. The rest of the album is stacked with interesting, mumbled lyrics and murky soundscapes devoid of samples, ranging from bleak to bouncy.

||| Stream: “Tea & Lemonade”

||| Live: Pyramid Vritra plays Feb. 18 at The Airliner for Low End Theory.