Sollyy – Apply The Pressure (feat. Zion Garcia)
There’s a little Sydney clique that’s been bearing fruit over the last few years that centers up the likes of Nick Ward, Zion Garcia, Sollyy, Dylan Atlantis and Breakfast Road. It’s called… I don’t know. It probably doesn’t have a name and the more I think about it, the more insane it seems to actually name a friendship group. Anyway, two of those earlier mentioned are the protagonists in today’s story. Sollyy, a producer whose ideas are starting to shape more than a hand full of local records this year has roped in Zion, a vocalist whoms flows have been largely emotive and introspective across his limited output. Full disclosure, I work with Sollyy, but historically that’s never guaranteed I’d write about a song on this webzine so assurances be, this record is a real one. You know what, why don’t you just go ahead and hit play while you read.
45 seconds with swelling tension, rising temperature and leftfield samples and Zion showering one liners around your ears. Then it hits. The most pure house bass line you’ll hear in 2023, sucking everything around it in like a collapsing blackhole with only Zion’s vocal capable of resisting its improbable gravity. I’ve LOVED hearing Zion on his inner heart tip over the last couple years but this steezy, high impact flow of his bowled me straight on my ass. For reference, have at ‘Overthinking’, a little something Zion gave us earlier this year that’s been a mainstay for my 2am moments few as they are in my parent era.
Pretty bloody beautiful huh. Back on Apply The Pressure though, and credit has goooooot to be paid for the way Sollyy has hammered down this production with total force and subtlety. It hits so hard on the beat end yet everything arrives just at the right moment and transitions so cleanly. How nice is it to hear collaboration between two artists who clearly love working together too, you can tell when it’s not phoned in. One full circle thing to add that pleased me on an inner level is that the title and lyric in this track ‘We can still die a legend, still I apply the pressure’ is a tight little reference to an officially unreleased Tkay vocal. A couple years back I hit up Tkay for some bars for triple j Unearthed DIY Supergroup and she obliged with some proper flambé. This line featured among them and was a producers favourite through the comp (por ejemplo) but hearing it reimagined like this? That’s amore.
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