Tennis Champ - Horseplay
Tennis Champ, “an angry little man with a sampler,’ makes retro-upbeat feel-good-core summer beats, despite what his Bandcamp description says. Very reminiscent of Neon Indian, Tennis Champ mostly soars due to his underdog aesthetic and simple-yet-catchy compositions. His EP, Horseplay, is without a doubt his most solid output.
Lucky Charm Self Harm opens the album is an admirably gleeful manner. Despite being a quirky and imaginative title, the song itself is relatively straightforward and plain. The song relies on boring aesthetics from the 90’s bitune era of video games, while charmingly capturing nostalgic summer vibes. Sadly, it also does nothing of substance with them; nevertheless, it works. Much could be said about Pepsi Energy Fields. The real highlight is Pissboy; the track is quite dynamic and playful, and a significant improvement over previously releases that were relatively one-note in comparison. Furthermore, Trench Coat Club (other version) is a very entertaining venture into experimental territories; if only the artist made more risks as such. Scrumpy hands is passable; the track relies on its aesthetic with nothing interesting to say composition-wise (lack of meaningful progression). Lastly, Plastic Pistols is a really chill outro to the album. Despite its flaws, it’s rather impressive how Tennis Champ was able to maintain a solid, consistent summer vibe throughout the record.
Tennis Champ relies far less on real-life sample work to cultivate its identity, and while sonically it’s more creative than Champ’s other work, the album still struggles to cultivate its own identity. Perhaps this is due to the lack of vocals, or the overreliance on bit-tune aesthetics. Nonetheless, Tennis Champ will have to experiment a lot more in future in order to stand out. Thankfully, his personality still shines in this neat little EP; for that alone, it’s worth a glimpse into Champ’s world.
Above Average
Listen to it here:
