RiTchie (Injury Reserve/By Storm) drops innovative solo album Triple Digits [112]
PRAISE FOR RiTchie
“Rhymes are scant, but his performance is engaging, the lack of percussion accenting his subtly metered flows”
“Field recordings, distorted synths, and agony-stricken vocals from Ritchie, create a dense, misshapen soundscape”
“Ritchie with a T’s growing breathlessness gives the song an oppressive, claustrophobic quality”
“Striking vulnerability”
“A public service announcement for you to stop in your tracks”
“RiTchie lets loose”
“A head-nod-inducing rap song named after another famous Ritchie”
“Experimental production techniques underline RiTchie's hypnotic flow”
TRACKLIST
Wings [Intro]
WYTD?!?!
RiTchie Valens
The Keepers
Only You
Triple Digits [112]
Dizzy (ft. Aminé)
Looping
Your Worst Nightmare
How?! (ft. Niontay)
Get A Fade
The Thing (ft. Quelle Chris)
5onthe.
[Credits]
Triple Digits [112] LP is out now, buy/stream it here.
RiTchie, of Injury Reserve/By Storm, releases his debut solo album Triple Digits [112]. LISTEN HERE.
Introducing the record by shedding light on the conditions during which he made it, RiTchie says his solo debut is: “A collection of songs inspired by Phoenix’s new record-breaking 31 days of 110+ degrees set last July as I was making Triple Digits [112].” Prefaced in an open letter to fans as being a limitless creative outlet separate from the identity he’s crafted as part of Injury Reserve/By Storm, Triple Digits [112] is a canvas for self-expression with an enhanced production palette from feardorian, Parker Corey, AJ Radico, Melik, RiTchie himself and J Fisher. RiTchie also reunites with past Injury Reserve collaborators like Aminé through to charismatic features from burgeoning peers Niontay and Quelle Chris.
Marrying the bombastic chaos of a free wheeling mixtape with the cult-innovation that comes hand in hand with Nathaniel Ritchie’s name, Triple Digits [112] represents an extension of his personality as much as it poses an introduction to a whole new character. Here, RiTchie is as diaristic as Earl Sweatshirt, mischievous like Wiki and still, as deeply intentional as Saba, delivering an immersive experience throughout. Trunk rattling experiments warbling through broken trap beats and autotune spoken word delivered as comfortably as he crafts straight up crowd pleasers and old school sample flips galore.
Exuding personality, his recent string of singles including the formless ‘Looping‘ to the freewheeling ‘RiTchie Valens‘ and ‘Dizzy (ft. Aminé)‘ expand today with his latest single ‘WYTD?!?!‘. Beaming with nostalgia, atop his exploratory bars RiTchie, possessing a half-speed Busta Rhymes like quality, mimicks vinyl scratches and hype horns through flying adlibs and woozy acapella impersonations of percussive production. Directed by Parker Corey, the accompanying music video magnifies the seemingly “ass-backwards”, capricious and playful nature of RiTchie’s solo album from top to bottom.
Born from happy-accident catharsis, where Triple Digits [112] lays bare RiTchie’s most overt influences musically, lyrically his greatest asset remains his malleable voice. In his vocal toolbox, mumble rap has as purposeful a home as Gil Scot Heron like sermons through to Westside Gunn style drawl; soulfully sung melodies next to hushed whispers and inflections unlike anything from the noise-rapper yet. As playful as it is an honest soliloquy, Triple Digits [112] is poised to certify the soloist as an incongruous anomaly. The latest compelling example of an artist able to stay true to their crazy-inspired origins as a collective, able to extinguish any doubt of their promise when standing alone.
Fresh from an interstate move, it was while Nathaniel Ritchie was still in high school that he found a close knit circle of like-minded creatives, sharpening his rapper chops in an otherwise deserted hip hop scene. Though it wasn’t until RiTchie and his two best friends found inspiration from the broader Arizona DIY scene that they would go on to foster the “chaotic punk-rock energy” (Stereogum) of Injury Reserve and strike gold. Boldly experimenting amongst themselves would take the misfits, with RiTchie at the helm, on an unprecedented journey that boast a reputation as makers of change: for Phoenix, of all places, as a space of previously untapped talent-worthy attention; and for the genre, as leaders of a cult-following for their alternate, anti-tradition offering. Today RiTchie steps out on his own, with another exhilarating realm of possibility at the tip of his pen.
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