The “face of digicore” – 21-year-old producer Ericdoa – was made by and for the internet: an e-boy incubated by online glitchpop and digicore producer communities. Like his peers (including collaborators Glaive and Daine) the artist born Eric Lopez is a genre-bender by trade, punching together angsty emo, gutsy hyperpop and suave trap, teetering against the esoteric and irreverent without ever losing virality. It’s Post Malone on a sugar rush.
Not unlike the iconoclastic hyperpop, its offshoot digicore favours abrasive production and ironic pop superstardom. The Interscope-signed Ericdoa’s greatest USPs are his links to the gaming community and industry: the Discord-dwelling, Twitch-streaming, Riot Games-collaborating artist posits a vision of misfit artistry at its most digitally native. He’s a new multi-hyphenate, an underground producer reworking the fabric of pop celebrity.
‘DOA’ – the follow-up to 2022’s ‘Things With Wings’ – is no less sonically rebellious than his earlier material, but is surprisingly more grounded. Opener ‘The Cake Is A Lie’ begins with a breathless Eric atop police sirens, as if he’s sprinting from authority. It seems with all eyes on him (even TikTok success stories PinkPantheress and Addison Rae are notable fans) he’s fidgeting for creative freedom beyond his computer-desk confines.
In a sense, he defies his roots: although ‘DOA’ remains left-of-field, it washes away much of his staple glitchy bombast, instead saturating in analogue soundscapes. Only a few cuts – all album highlights, mind – remain close to hyperpop: the 100 gecs-ish ‘Lastjune’, synth-tearing ‘Imcoolimgoodimstraight’ and thumping ‘Crisis Actor’. Indeed, his digital hedonism is missed, but not always to his detriment. Some breathing room allows the elevator jazz of ‘Kickstand’, melancholic shoegaze of ‘Dancinwithsomebawdy’ and pop-rock of ‘Arm And A Leg’ to all shine.
There’s a sense that across ‘DOA’, Ericdoa seeks to recommit to the musical freedom at the heart of the digicore movement. In defying expectations, ‘DOA’ is a reassertion of self that redefines the edges of his reckless abandon – or “a decaying of immaturity”, as he said in this mixtape’s accompanying press materials. Ericdoa dials ‘DOA’ down a few notches without sacrificing vision.
Details
- Release date: January 15
- Record label: Interscope