dvsn: "Hallucinations"

As the long shadow of the ’90s continues to manifest in R&B, few artists have managed to really channel the greatness of those grooves. Enter dvsn, a mysterious project starring an anonymous vocalist. Its first ballad, “The Line,” landed on OVO Sound‘s Beats 1 radio show—an epic slow-burner stoking the flame of neo soul intimacy for a post-Take Care world.

Many of the current vibe-oriented crooners recycling ’90s hip-hop soul—guys like Bryson Tiller and Tory Lanez—are derivative of Drake‘s moody, pseudo-selfless romance in some way. But dvsn has actual links to Drake/OVO producer Nineteen85, and though his concrete identity remains unknown, a carefully-framed image is coming into focus: the heard-and-not-seen marketing strategy (à la the Weeknd), the vowelless-name (à la JMSN), and an emphasis on sounds that peer back into the not-so-distant past yet are transmitted in high definition.

Now comes “Hallucinations”, a sparse, spacious ode to lost love. It packs a ghostly whisper into a box in a way that’s familiar but hauntingly evocative. This isn’t revivalism; there are no ’90s shadow puppets on blank canvases. Instead, “Hallucinations” is impressionism. The production is subtle, kinetic and exhilarating, but it’s that nameless singer who gives the track life—gently pushing out words as coos and pulling back slightly, as if to carefully suck them back in. This lends itself well to his subject, who appears only as a specter, a fragment of memory. “Losing my concentration/ Hearing your voice in my head/ Seeing you when you aren’t there,” he laments. His delivery is breathy and full of yearning; he rips the high notes, frosts a trilling falsetto. “Hallucinations” is expertly crafted, but it thrives on real emotion, longing to embody a dying love’s spirit and make an illusion into flesh.