FnF by Enkore
The Blog #12: Taking stock
The Blog features short writeups on short EPs. My thoughts and track-by-track notes are listed below. Listen to the EP. Discuss. Enjoy.
Place @original listen: gas station, buying coffee
Thoughts:
I feel like I have written about routine umpteen times. But then I have also undertaken it umpteen times. And since it is the most soundtracked portion of my life this past year, it gets another writeup on here. FnF (Feelings and Flows) is a stripped back taste of blog-era backpack rap refurbished to accommodate the Indian middle-class. Now before you think this is some deep extrapolation of a 6-minute EP, let me just say that this was made during my train ride back home after a typically long day at work so I was in peak melancholy. But in all seriousness, Enkore seems to have found a niche here. If you were to trace his sound from back to his drop in 2015 to now, you can gradually see the whittling away of instrumentation in the beats he is rapping over. FnF has no hooks. It is essentially a stream of consciousness exercise for a man who is living life. The beats all consist of looped vocal samples and emphatic kick drums. This, paired with a choppy delivery and purposeful cadence, makes for a tender experience. The tracks take stock of all that has changed, and the continuation of creation. Enkore has been in the game for more than a decade, and with FnF, it seems like he is finally carving a niche in the scene. The backpack blog era of American rap sprung from the emergence of literature in the internet. Indian rap is completely a product of the internet, having started on early social networks before blossoming into a real-life community and scene. This is the polar opposite of the beginnings of rap in America, where rap began as community music for the ghettos. It is almost fitting then, that FnF, an EP that embodies the peace-minded present-focussed raps of the blog era, has sprung from Enkore’s lived experiences. This has been a long year. And I was starting to look at it as a missed year because it feels like I am two steps behind what my ambitions imagine. And it always feels like my lack of adherence to routine is the reason. Over time, this has evolved into the chase of routine. Now, I seem two steps behind the mundane task too. But if FnF is to be taken as life advice, it seems like the key is to simply live. Take stock of the life you have lived, and continue to keep living. Just keep doing. Somewhere down the line, your ambition will break down your actual desire. And once you know what you really want, you simply have to use the skill you have been relentlessly developing to go and get it. Routine bears fruit when you really want this shit. Otherwise, it just an infinite run on the gerbil wheel.
Notes:
6:10: The keys are whimsical and melancholic. Talks about change. The delivery is very choppy, he emphasises every word and it works because the drums are mixed very loud. Got one job and that’s to be alive here. Repetition is used as a substitute for the hook. Through the years, Enkore has learnt. And his only priority now is to not repeat past mistakes, and to let things flow. Direct, poignant delivery.
Aai Shappat: Melancholy keys again. Boom bap track. Enkore wants to keep at it just to improve his pen game. He is in it for the craft, not the riches. The track is the equivalent of the statement “on my mama imma keep grinding”
Better Things: This is such a 2010s backpack era coded rap. A natural ending to this EP. Prioritize yourself and you will feel free. Create from a place of positivity. Enkore is on to better things. The whole beat is a looped sample of a woman vocalizing. Short record.