In Rotation: H.LLS

I get a lot of DMs with rogue links. Most of them are trash. But when I clicked on H.LLS, I didn’t see faces. Just three red-orange squares staring back at me. The northwest London trio operates in complete anonymity, letting the music do the heavy lifting. They dropped their debut project TAPE 1 earlier in 2024, and it sounds exactly like the capital at 3 AM. You hear the ghosts of OG dubstep rattling around in the drum programming. The vocals are pure, distorted R&B. It feels tense. The production hits with the immediacy of an illegal rave bleeding through the walls of a basement flat. Listen to the way the bass swallows the kick drum on "Y PREE," or how SOLOMON’s voice cuts through the haze on "MOVING." They build tracks with heavy low-end frequencies and jagged percussion, leaving just enough pocket for the melodies to breathe. I usually hate anonymous acts. It feels like a cheap gimmick to mask mid music. H.LLS actually have the beats to back up the mystery. When you strip away the ego and the press shots, you are forced to listen to the architecture of the sound. They aren't hiding. They are redirecting your eyes to your ears. The momentum is finally catching up to the music. "Y PREE" just cracked Spotify's R&B UK playlist at #52 and landed on Apple Music's New Music Daily. KVNF out in Montrose is spinning them on the radio. Their Spotify audience doubled this month because people are waking up to what Queens Road Music is distributing. I don't care what these three look like as long as they keep dropping heat. Hit play below.