Emerging from the vibrant streets of Brooklyn, Late Again embodies Rafael’s distinctive blend of ethereal pop melodies intertwined with the pulsating rhythms of his Brazilian heritage. His music reflects the struggles of his generation, capturing the challenging pursuit of belonging in a fractured world where even the values we hold hang by reality’s thin thread in ways never seen before. Late Again, as a musical project, is an exquisite oneiric distillation from a wildly creative mind seeking to carve out a sonic stomping ground for his artistry.
Listen to the EP…
Rafael’s artistic journey has been shaped by diverse experiences as a true multimedia creator, with work spanning film, music, and even video games. This broad and extensive experience is an unmistakable quality that any seasoned melomaniac will easily recognize through the refined and innovative yet accessible sound he brings to the table.
For his latest offering, Late Again presents a solid four-piece EP titled “Absolutely Almost Sure”. This record solidifies many of the unconventional (but extremely catchy) tools in Rafael’s musical bag while also representing a new direction in sound, clearly aimed at evoking nostalgia. Each song in the EP is washed in a hazy synth fuzz and baked in the warm glow of a CRT display dream, as reflected in the respective music videos that accompany each track—all carefully laid out as a meditation on the inexorable presence of the past in our present and future.
Kicking off the experience, “Like Albie Said” dives into existential themes right away with jarringly beautiful lines such as, “It all feels so silly now / But ain’t it poetic / To make up the meaning of our love?” This track speaks to the complicated and often absurd nature of relationships, with Albie being a reference to existentialist writer Albert Camus.
The existential themes continue with “A House On the Beach”. The track’s foundation lies in both the trip-hop beat and the undulating synth melody, cranking the nostalgic factor up to eleven, while the accompanying music video perfectly showcases beach footage from Rafael’s earliest days.
In “Take Me Wherever”, the album sinks even deeper into the vaporwave vibes that permeate it, particularly through the use of digital trickery applied to the already oneiric vocals, enhancing that surreal feeling. This track is a masterclass in the power of repetition, with its title words repeated continuously throughout more than half of the song, facilitating a trance-like enjoyment of the textures and sinuous soundscape that Late Again has crafted.
To close what has already been a special EP, Late Again goes above and beyond with “Sad, Sad Funk”, incorporating Brazilian Phonk beats slowed and reverbed beyond easy recognition, producing the musical equivalent of floating in a warm pool at night.