March 13, 2024 at PDT
CAN YOU SEE ME?
With her 2023 release, IT’S NOT A PHASE, bass-music maestro Isabelle Rezazadeh, aka Rezz, threw a curveball into the dance tent by foregrounding her formative punk, goth, and emo influences, and applying her bin-rattling beats to melody-driven collaborations with indie heroes like Silverstein and Alice Glass. But as it turns out, IT’S NOT A PHASE was actually just a phase; for its follow-up, the Toronto-based producer has ricocheted in the complete opposite direction.
The largely instrumental anti-pop manifesto CAN YOU SEE ME? is “focused on the heaviest, craziest sounds you’ve ever heard,” Rezz proudly tells Apple Music. “Some people feel really gratified by writing a song that has amazing vocals and amazing lyrics, but my thing is making a track that sounds just fucking crazy live. I’m not talking about getting the biggest reaction in terms of, like, headbanging; I’m talking more about a wow factor.”
To be more accurate, CAN YOU SEE ME? is actually all about the ow factor, as Rezz delivers a mind-bending, body-bruising barrage of industrialized shocks, eerie horror-movie atmospheres, and crater-forming drops. But as much as it’s about pushing her music to new extremes, it’s also an all-star showcase of the many producer pals she’s made over her first decade of music-making, from longtime mentor and fellow Niagara Falls native deadmau5 to newer discoveries like British beat mutilator KAVARI. Here, Rezz provides us with a track-by-track breakdown of her vision for CAN YOU SEE ME?.
“CAN YOU SEE ME?”
“To anyone who’s ever hated on me, or ever said anything negative about me, this project is like a massive flex. In terms of bass music, it’s just indisputably some of the hardest, craziest shit. So, the title ‘CAN YOU SEE ME?’ is me saying, ‘I want everyone to just pay attention to this. I want everyone who’s ever been a fan of me to pay attention to this and anyone who’s ever hated on me to pay attention to this!’”
“Everywhere, Nowhere”
“Of all the songs here, I would say this is the most familiar-sounding song to my sound. I wrote the intro and the first drop part on this track, and I really loved it, but I was kind of stuck—like, what kind of direction can this track go in? So, I sent it to Blanke, and he absolutely smashed his contributions—he added such a nice melodic element to the song that originally wouldn’t have had as much of that vibe to it.”
“Black Ice”
“This has truly turned into such a massive song already, which is kind of ridiculous for an instrumental song. I knew we were going to make another song together [after 2022’s ‘Puzzle Box’], but I didn’t know when it was going to happen. And the way it happened was so quick and random that I didn’t expect it. It’s always amazing to work with Jesse [Kardon, aka Subtronics], because he’s kind of insane like me. We’re both very, like, ‘Let’s get this shit done now!’”
“CUT ME OUT”
“I’ve been a huge fan of Digital Ethos for a really long time. He’s one of my favorite artists in terms of bass music—he has this slow, chill, but heavy and nasty sound design. It’s just insane. He sent me this idea, and I immediately knew what I was going to add to it, which was the later drop, where I speed it up and make it more of a house tempo.”
“The Descent”
“INZO actually started on this track a few years ago, and I actually played it at my Red Rocks set in 2020. It was unfinished then, but I was obsessed with it, and I was like, ‘This track is so sick—I want to collab on it!’ So, he sent me the project file, like, four years ago, but he nailed the first drop, and I wasn’t even sure what I could possibly contribute to this song, so it got put on the back burner. We both kind of forgot about it. And then I randomly remembered it, and we ended up wrapping it up this year, and I’m so unbelievably excited and grateful for that, because it really is such a fucking insane song, especially in a live show. I still can’t believe that it’s on the album—this is a top 10 all-time track for me.”
“OPEN UR EYE”
“The way that Cyclops distorts the bass makes it sound like you’ve blown out your earbuds, and I really like that. Once again, I played this one song of his at my Red Rocks show, and the video of it kind of blew up. So, I really wanted to work with him. He’s a very clever dude. I told him exactly the kind of vibe that I wanted to make with him, which would be simple and bold—like a simple rhythm that locks you in. He sent me that first drop part, and I immediately was like, ‘Yep, exactly!’ His vibe is just great. I think people really forget how important it is to just be a chill person—it compels me to work with people who come off nice and have a funny personality.”
“DYSPHORIA”
“Holly sent me that first drop, like, two years ago, and it was a similar situation to the INZO collab, where at first I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to contribute to this, but it’s so sick.’ But it was weird: This year, I had this bout of inspiration, and I suddenly had all the answers to every unfinished collab ever. I ended up hopping on this track by contributing a lot of industrial components, like the drums and the melody and atmosphere. I wouldn’t say that the title necessarily had any sort of reference to anything specific. It just kind of came to my head—the track just had this post-apocalyptic feel to it.”
“Maleficent”
“Me and Eddie actually made this track years ago, and I sort of held it hostage because I was waiting for the perfect home for it. I’m really glad that we waited to put it out on this project, because it’s just so perfect for this. Eddie is such an incredible producer; I love working with him. The sound design is absolutely insane. The rhythms are insane. The melody’s amazing.”
“Exorcism”
“KAVARI is indisputably in my top five favorite artists right now. She is truly revolutionary to me. Her sound is the most jarring, darkest, evil, and heaviest I have ever heard in my entire life. You know, we all hear dubstep music, but this is just different. There’s a whole other league of ominous terror in her sound design. With this one, the intro builds, and it sounds like you’re literally entering the gates of hell. KAVARI sent me this incredible grungy WAV file of just the nastiest bass sound, and I could just go and cut up the parts that I felt were the strongest and the craziest and turned them into a sort of rhythm. I think our track is a very unique, fresh take on bass music. You get a ‘what the actual fuck just happened?!’ kind of vibe with this one. I really do think tracks like this push bass music forward. You think something’s heavy but wait until you hear this track.”
“Infraliminal (Isabelle’s Version)”
“The original song from deadmau5 called ‘Superliminal’ is actually one of the main reasons that I ever started making music. That track is enormously valuable and special to me, because the way that the bass moves is so hypnotic and so captivating, and I knew that I had to put my own twist on it. This was a pretty last-minute addition, but I actually decided to include it as the last track, just because it is super-meaningful to me. And I think it also really suits the whole album. I would love to make more music with Joel [Zimmerman, aka deadmau5]—he is obviously my god, so I’m always down. He lives, like, 10 minutes away from me, so we’ll see what happens!”
10 Tracks
