Terrell Hines releases his debut EP on Capitol Records entitled St. Mark Rd. He's not only a songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer with influences as broad as Outkast, Joy Division, Four Tet, and Gullah music, but Hines' mind isn't quite like other people's. It's no wonder Berklee College of Music gave Hines a full ride, or that people's first exposure to his vision came during a 2019 Apple keynote — that song, the rip-roaring avant-hoedown Get Up,hails from St. Mark Rd. EP, and is a mere peak into the wildness that's coming.
Terrell Hines' music contains multitudes, and not just in the obvious way that it blurs all manner of genres into one big urgent, beautiful, hyper-dynamic ball of energy. Yes, the core of his sound is a living mix of eerie soul, alt-pop, hip-hop, post-punk, and southern funk, but Hines is a world-builder with a voracious mind. This Georgia-born, Los Angeles-based visionary has created an entire ecosystem for his songs, where sonic structures and lyrics are just as likely to be inspired by the socio-political as they are the personal, by functional architecture as abstract art, by the austere science of survivalism as the limitless potential of technology. The best part is, you don't have to know all that to feel the holistic magic of Hines' work. We hear immediacy, exuberance, freedom, and ingenuity — music as surprising as it is captivating. Hines asks himself:
If shit popped off and society had to be rebuilt, how would I do it?
Take a listen to the single below.