Exam season may be behind us, but its frantic sense of urgency lives on in swimcoach’s latest Soundcloud upload, “omfg finals amirite”. The LA-based emcee carefully surveys a shivering chiptune landscape, its Nokia ringtone trills subbing in for orchestral flutters of woodwind — screened calls form a sonic barrier between artist and audience as swimcoach hurriedly shoves punchlines between lumbering stomps of bass.
At 76 seconds, “omfg finals” isn’t as much of a fleshed-out song as it is the post-expressionist work suggested by its cover art. In a few sentences and synthesized brushstrokes, the tune bottles a moment of time, showing us the magical-realist refraction of a student at his desk, forehead resting in his palm, bruising a notebook with streaks of yellow highlighter. It’s an aural cram session — a cyberpunk study date.