It’s safe to say, Adrian ‘abstrct’ Anaya is a diamond in the rough that Portland has yet to find. The Portland native has taken time out to re-establish his sound since his debut release, Patience, in 2014.
This year he brings us a 5 track EP. Anaya mentioned that he took a hiatus after the Patience EP because he “lost sight of original goal to turn my patience for making music into something progressive, something that captured the parallel emotions of my environment around me”. I don’t know if it was the plan or not, but Anaya has practiced patience in all the right places. I can feel his emotions through his voice, which is FULL of old soul/gospel R&B sounds.
With a rich vocal range and a robust vernacular, abstrct has a great start with more potential for growth. His skills with his voice have made him a notable name in the #4BarFriday community as well. After weeks of praise from participants, 4Bar pioneer Damian Lillard shared abstrct’s promo single, Pineapples (2nd song on Progress). The exposure sky-rocketed abstrct’s single on SoundCloud, exceeding more that 10,000 plays. My only critique on abstrct’s style is that he needs to loosen up his delivery when rapping, but I’ll leave that for you to decide.
Even though i genuinely enjoy this project, it needed some work to achieve the cohesive feel of an album. I think it needed a few more songs to tie the rest of the songs together. But check out ‘All About Yü’, that song is my shit!
Overall, I give this EP 3/5 “Out Here’s”.
Check out The Progress EP below and let abstrct know how his soulful EP made you feel. Enjoy.