- Ana Roxanne and DJ Python find solace in the dimly lit spaces of synth pop, downtempo and ambient.
- Ana Roxanne and DJ Python, AKA Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, take their time to lure listeners into their pensive worlds. Roxanne does it with lulling drones, angelic vocals and arrangements that reference traditional music. Python prefers the hypnotic, seductive pulse of reggaeton, sometimes slowed down to a crawl. Their music is as unnerving as it is soothing, an alluring contrast that has led them to become two of the most exalted US ambient artists.
They're also friends who met in 2020 after releasing their own solo albums—Roxanne's Because of a Flower and DJ Python's Mas Amable. The two recorded together as the pandemic dragged on, bonding over Filipino food and long car rides listening to Portishead and Björk. Their self-titled debut as Natural Wonder Beauty Concept rises above any one-off collaboration. It's an album that makes room for anyone in sorrow and offers them a shoulder to cry on.
In their combined vision, comfort lies in the moody sounds of downtempo, ambient and synth pop. "III" is immaculately produced emo-rap, with triplet hi-hats punctuating a mournful call-and-response. "Isn't it strange that I kind of feel nothing at all?" DJ Python mumbles to Roxanne's retort: "Wouldn't you say that I'm a person / Giving you the time?" The album circles back to this theme of salvation and of the compassion granted in times of struggle.
Roxanne and DJ Python, predisposed to making haunting music alone, widen their vision and fill in the details together. Lead single "Sword" glitches with DJ Python's thudding bass and the icy scrapes of blades being unsheathed. Roxanne loops and distorts a cascading piano line in "The Veil I," one of several instrumental passages. Someone sobs over the trip-hop of penultimate track "Clear." Synths and vocals illuminate the dark alleyways throughout the album and give levity to DJ Python's pummelling lower end.
It's Roxanne's steadfast performance that gives the album its strongest moments. Her voice is nimble and cathartic. In "Driving," she delivers spoken word passages with the lilt of a nursery rhyme. Her wordless singing also floats with grace in the title track, a rush of atmospheric drum & bass. For those who see their wounds old or new exposed in Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, Roxanne offers a lifeline.
Solace appears in the album's closer, "World Freehand Circle Drawing." "Gotta see how far I can go," Roxanne sings, "where nothing is." The refrain is a triumphant ending to a brilliant, curious album. In combining the best elements of their individual work, Roxanne and DJ Python have landed on a winning formula bursting with possibilities.
Tracklist01. Fallen Angel
02. Sword
03. III
04. The Veil I
05. Natural Wonder Beauty Concept
06. The Veil II
07. Young Adult Fiction
08. Driving
09. Clear
10. World Freehand Circle Drawing