Blacktop Freak is the alter-ego of Michigan-based musician Nick Marinelli.

Marinelli’s reverb-clad soundscapes are derived from parts woozy dream-pop, swirling psychedelia and whirring shoegaze, a penchant outlined on recently released debut EP, Ibidem. The EP climaxes with ‘majordepressivebipolarocdillallowyou’, which charts the steady, then complete breakdown of a relationship.

Musically, the song is one of constantly rising in tension. Beginning life with a gentle melodic strum, it meanders for a time in a dreamy slumbering wonderland, gradually swelling and before enveloping all in its wake with an increasing hiss, off-key strum and feverish atmosphere as a mesmeric hypnotic pattern emerges as it spills and sprawls over one another in slo-mo fashion. It reaches its peak and then its gone. It is equally beautiful and jarring; raw yet refined; it is a powerful and seductive sound – no mean feat.

Listen to ‘majordepressivebipolarocdillallowyou’ below: