Rising Star Matt Ryder Breaks the Boundaries of Genre and Explores New Ground with his Latest EP ‘Escape’

Not long after dropping his second album ‘Soundless motion’, Matt Ryder is back to crossing the parameters of electronic music with release of his new EP ‘Escape’. Only 18, the Birmingham born music producer and multi-instrumentalist has a promising future ahead of him. While lockdown kept many of us in a state of hopeless stagnation for the past year, Matt Ryder managed to turn that time into something worthwhile, taking to making music as a way of expressing his state of teenage emotional turmoil, stating that his fears and anxieties about lockdown were the inspiration for his voyage into creativity.

“This EP has been a massive journey for me,” says Ryder about the new project. “I started making this music when I was 16—at the start of lockdown—and finished when I was 18. It really was an emotional rollercoaster. Over the course of the EP, I came to terms with my own sexuality and relationships, went through classic coming-of-age stories and discovered so many different parts of myself and my life.”

Instantly catching your eye, ‘Escape’s’ cover features an abstract display of hard-to-make out art that accurately depicts Ryder’s way of thinking when it comes to his music. “I like to think my music has a message, and hope that people decode their own ideas from the music”.

Ryder’s second track ‘Before I go’ subverts the listeners expectations of what is to come. What starts off sounding like just another upbeat garage track, quickly transforms into a mix of heartfelt vocals and a feeling that is both chilling and inspiring. Sounding as though it was inspired by the stranger things Retrowave soundtrack at times, the tracks have a scope and cinematic range that makes you think they could be on the soundtrack of a film. The way in which Ryder uses reverberation and slows down his last track ‘6am’, is reminiscent of the chill wave genre that started in the 2010’s, something that is evident in much of this EP and Ryder’s other work. He also cites South Korean DJ Peggy Gou as a big source of inspiration for his work.

While the experimental nature of the album manages to demonstrate Ryder’s eclectic individuality, his consistent sound makes the EP sound like one progressive track. There is no doubt that Ryder will experiment more in his future projects, considering how fast he has managed to produce something that sounds so fresh.

Ryder is definitely an artist to keep your eye on.

Matt Ryder – Escape [EP]: listen here