Riovaz is on the next stage of his sonic evolution with “Lavender Town,” a ghoulish hyperpop elegy wrapped in digital devastation. Famed for writing underground anthems that come with an undercurrent of visceral misery, Riovaz steps out from the Eyelike grid into the shadows, tapping into the ghostly feel of the original Pokémon’s “Lavender Town” to accompany the heaviness of lost love.
“I don’t wanna stay, I just wanna leave,” he confesses, caught between memory’s crossfire and detachment. “Lavender Town” heavenly production swirls around him; it captures the all-around presence of someone who is gone but never really disappears. Like the spectral Pokémon haunting “Lavender Town,” heartbreak is a ghost that can’t be exorcised.
With a knack for transforming fatigue into something beautiful, heartbreaking, and electric, Riovaz uses his trademark knack for synthesizing internet nostalgia and future-facing soundscapes to turn the discomforting into something beautiful. This careful artistic depth landed him on Billboard’s “21 Under 21” and still makes him one of the most compelling voices in the scene.