ALBUM REVIEWS
“I’m what a rockstar looks like” were the words of a young and exuberant Master Peace, speaking to NME four years ago. It’s a statement that the London artist, born Peace Okezie, has since followed through on, bridging the worlds between rap, punk and indie through singles like 2019’s ‘Night Time’ and The Streets collaboration ‘Wrong Answers Only’. He now finds himself armed with a range of styles, which continue to seamlessly interchange in his music.
Mashing explosive beats with groovy guitar lines, ‘How To Make A Master Peace’ vibrates with energy from the get-go. Opener ‘Los Narcos’ channels the riffs and textures from The Hives’ heyday; later on, ‘Get Naughty!’ pairs bombastic production with call-and-response vocals.
The arrangements here are also defined by their basslines, which vary in pace and intensity, from low-key (‘Happiness Is Love’) to rhythmic and wickedly addictive (Georgia team-up ‘I Might Be Fake’). On the latter, layers of synths build a foundation for the track’s curveball of a chorus, making it the catchiest sing-along on the album. It’s a masterclass in organised chaos.
Okezie even ventures into pure pop territory on ‘Heaven’: ““Let me see paradise,” he sings, teasing a wave of euphoria before the track shifts towards an electro-house break. It makes for a real standout moment, while also cementing Okezie’s status as a burgeoning creative force.
ALBUM REVIEWS
The leather jackets and skinny jeans worn by Noah Dillon and Chandler Ransom Lucy have become something of a signature, and the pair have hovered around the edges of the pop worlds in New York and Los Angeles for quite some time. First highlighted by NME during the Dimes Square resurgence in 2023, The Hellp have gradually stepped away from their earlier indie-sleaze imitation and leaned into something far more thoughtful. Their wild, neon-tinged party vibe has been traded for a more cinematic electronic approach that still holds onto a confident, self-aware attitude.
Dillon and Lucy started releasing music as The Hellp in 2016, with early mixtapes rooted in the chaotic nights and carefree behaviour once associated with NYC’s indie-sleaze staples like LCD Soundsystem and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Over time, though, they’ve earned a steadily growing respect from critics. That rise has come through both their underground gigs, which have included a show at London’s Corsica Studios with Fakemink as support, and through Dillon’s expanding visual work that recently reached Rosalía’s ‘LUX’ album and a pair of music videos for 2hollis.
As ‘Riviera’ approached release, the duo shared: “We knew our next project would need to be a bit more mature… we refuse to become stagnant. ‘Riviera’ is more solemn, restrained and impassioned than anything we’ve done before.” The finished album feels like Dillon and Lucy carefully balancing identity and openness, theatricality and direct emotion.
The lead release, ‘Country Road’, carries a late-night heaviness, the kind of confession you would quietly tell a friend in a club’s smoking area. Its lonely tone is surrounded by glitching electronics and a rising bridge that points to the exhaustion that follows endless nights out. Tracks like ‘New Wave America’ and ‘Cortt’ deepen what the duo mention in their liner notes as a “desperate story of the disparate Americana.” Both pieces broaden the album’s emotional landscape and offer clear-eyed commentary on reluctantly stepping into adulthood.
When ‘Riviera’ shifts into ‘Doppler’, the tone brightens for a moment as hopeful synths lift Dillon’s words about yearning and heartbreak into an emotional peak. And in the final moments of the record, The Hellp land on something instantly familiar to anyone who has drifted away from the club scene. The Kavinsky-like opening of ‘Here I Am’ nods to their early inspirations, while the closing track ‘Live Forever’ arrives with a slow, grounded maturity, built around Dillon repeating the line: “I don’t want to live forever.”
‘Riviera’ holds far less disorder than The Hellp’s earlier releases. This turn inward marks an important risk for a duo once fuelled by the momentum of a downtown New York comeback. By easing off the frenzy, The Hellp have stepped out of the party’s lingering haze and returned with a style that feels more refined and more aware of itself than anything they have created before.
