There’s not much we know about NOK From the Future. The mysterious teenage internet rapper keeps most of his identity, including his appearance, under wraps. In NOK’s music videos, his face is sometimes covered in a fencing mask, other times in a Japanese surgical face mask. One thing stays constant, though, and that’s NOK’s tagline on Twitter, Facebook and SoundCloud: “I Quit Real Life.”
NOK’s latest release, “A+,” is a 15-minute cloud-rap/rock hybrid EP which makes this tagline its thesis statement. Feelings of detachment and alienation come across strongly on the EP’s opening track, “Smoke and Drive,” where NOK raps over what could be a Wiz-Khalifa beat but is more grandiose, with layers of harpsichord arpeggios, grand pianos and distorted 808s. “I can’t tell if it’s Monday or Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday / ‘cause everyday feels like the same day,” NOK raps, his voice embedded within a collage of MIDI synths and video game sound effects. The cinematic sound strongly echoes “Linkin’ Park,” but if the band’s early albums were fused with today’s ethereal cloud-rap. The vibe on “Smoke and Drive” is fresh, conveying smoked-out apathy in a way that has never felt so apocalyptic.
As a whole, “A+”’s production style is plasticky and artificial, and it works in a beautiful way. On the track “Alone in the Suburbs,” NOK sings the chorus “I’m alone in the suburbs over a synth palette that sounds sterile and cheap, yet, combined with NOK’s lyrics and delivery, becomes hauntingly plastic. The song highlights NOK’s talent as a maximalist producer, layering clinical textures to create a feeling that’s like being lost in a Windows 7 desktop with too many windows open.
“A+” is quick, but it packs a lot within its 15-minute span. With its colorful, urgent and hi-tech sound, the EP is worth repeated listens. Overall, NOK’s dedication for making future-forward electronic music comes through very strongly on “A+”–for all the bedroom music producers of this broken world, he just might be a rising hero. To download “A+,” visit
nokftf.com.
Howard is a member of
the class of 2017.
