Observing an Idenity's Shape
Weeze’s New Beat Album, IDENTITY SHAPESHIFT
IDENTITY SHAPESHIFT
A Creative Beat Album By Weeze
Written by Phoebe Pugkhem George
Illustration by Daniel Criblez
When you think about identity, what comes to mind?
A solid, unwavering part of yourself that persists above all else? Or does your identity feel more malleable, more prone to distortion? IDENTITY SHAPESHIFT by Weeze asks itself that very same question. Starting as an ongoing musical exploration that found its beginnings during the pandemic, Weeze explores the thrumming landscapes of beat-making. Experimental compositions delve into the surreal, amorphous, and evershifting concept of identity through sound & rhythm. Every track explores another personality the artist has been or potentially will be, discovering states of constant evolution. Weeze has created a sublime compendium of self examination, demonstrating the ebbs and flows of finding yourself in an everchanging universe. This album is the result of a journey in interpersonal collaboration with the memory of the past, the unavoidable present, and the projected hope of the future.
The collection begins with RAINSOUP: a step back, hesitantly moving past what you know to re-discover in the process. A sample of glass breaking portrays a sense of loss—stepping over broken shards while feeling for walls in the dark. Driven forward by ambient, lo-fi vocals, the lead sample is used as an instrument, maybe even a chant. Starting a pattern seen throughout the album, this track features a sample from fellow community member, Panther Hollow, giving Weeze the compositional pattern of sampling his friend’s music. The song ends as it began, crawling back into reverse, plunging us into the adventure that is this collection.
SAME AS U is the beating heart of this album’s chest. Being the main focus of this release, this track also marks a major change in perspective for our main character. Rather than facing the road ahead with hopelessness, an emotional shift pushes us towards clarity. The SAME AS U short film, released alongside the album, was shot on the familiar streets of New York. From suitcases to subway trains, the film artfully visualizes the departure of a place for the opportunity to go somewhere new. A personality of its own blossoms from the milk drenched birthday candles to spilling bags of rice— all culminating into an intense percussion breakdown, made in collaboration with teasea, Weeze’s brother and frequent collaborator. The evolving drums destroy assumed patterns within the track’s progression, constructing the path ahead with beats and rhythm as if they were brick and mortar. This track represents a loop finally breaking just as the short film visually states. Finding a new beat to your step, the song takes our main character somewhere new and unknown.
As we move through the album, habits continue to break form; hopping from world to world, self to self. Our character uses the new soundscapes as a tool for personal examination. FRUIT FLY reminds us about the joy of discovery before we are taken down into the dark, calm waters of introspection. WHAT/WANT offers a quiet space to think before NEW UPDATE calls out to us with reflective memories, we shift again.
Throughout every track, human connection is a consistent theme. While identity is usually regarded as a solitary act of introspection, it is undeniable that the most important people in our lives permanently affect the ways we interact with the world. In track SASSY TREENUT, the artist’s little sister, Julie Criblez, is featured on vocals, leading a melodic charge as the song opens up into more and more layers of texture and ecstasy. Punctuated by a creaking door, high-hats chaperone the soulful piano chords as we dance toward one of the only lyrical moments on the record. With the 3 words “I told you”, the beat suddenly opens up into a wall of sound, welcoming you into its warm embrace. SASSY TREENUT projects the kinship of love and how much light can be trapped in the inner closets of the mind. The music invites us to unlock and let go.
On the topic of the soul, we are faced with the album’s artwork depicting the Identity shapeshifter character. A fine-line drawing Weeze describes as “a symbol for the soul before it has shifted into an identity,” the creature sports four groundbound limbs attached to one body, assisting them in their travel through thought planes of transformation. Two sets of legs stand together below one floating head on a trip to unknown adventures. I resonate deeply with this character. On a walk back to my home, I listened to RAINSOUP for the umteenth time, choosing the track as my companion to the coincidentally rainy night. Something felt different this time, as the song progressed, the weight of my future was lifted off of my shoulders for a second. I felt light and clear as an introspective feeling immersed, revealing my exciting passage ahead rather than the gloomy bookend to my day. I understood what it meant to be the Identity Shapeshifter, realizing how different I am compared to who I was last year, last month, or even last week. But most importantly, how exciting it was to be capable of change at all.
NOT IN THE MOOD (4ANYTHING) is where we find ourselves at the end of IDENTITY SHAPESHIFT. Vocals provided by Carli Naff of Carli & the Dark, this track is best listened to while laying on your back in bed, with cold air and moonlight cresting through your window. A calm, meditative humming envelopes the listener in the back half of the track, alongside the sampled sound of wind. Listening to NOT IN THE MOOD (4ANYTHING) feels like a calm reset at the end of a long journey, a breeze sweeping away the unneeded weights we’ve been carrying. Answering that yearning call to take a moment for yourself, this track finds the intersection of rest and restlessness. The journey isn’t over, but for tonight, it can wait.
IDENTITY SHAPESHIFT is alive; breathing and shifting as its own ecosystem. It reminds you that you are an amalgamation of every noise you’ve heard, every song you’ve sang, and every person you’ve loved. The collection reminisces just as much as it looks forward, each piece growing with you as you shift alongside it. The hands of the world will shape you into a new person everyday, a new track accompanying your daily commute as you walk, ride, and drive along familiar streets. Maybe on your next journey away from the paths you know, you will give IDENTITY SHAPESHIFT a listen, giving you company into the next great unknown. Maybe change is good, and this time you’ll understand that you’re not alone.
Written by Phoebe Pugkhem George