reviews / 2025

QUADECA - Vanisher, Horizon Scraper

Name: QUADECA – Vanisher, Horizon Scraper
Item: Vanisher, Horizon Scraper
Rating: 6.5
Author: Marco Sgrignoli

2025 (X8 music)

baroque trap

by Marco Sgrignoli

6.5

Any sufficiently advanced musical form is indistinguishable from prog

[C. K. Clarke (or thereabouts)]

Have you ever heard a minor fourth in a song trap? Don't give us those "I don't even know what that is" looks: your ears know perfectly well. It's that bittersweet chord right in the middle of the chorus of "Space Oddity (and of Starman, and of Life On Mars") and the shadow that darkens the refrain from "The Killing Moon"; it's the melancholy of the words "In My Life" in the immortal song by the Beatles and part of what makes you think "How Beatlesque!" about "Creep“, “Don’t Look Back In Anger“, “Killer Queen" and quite a few tracks from the Electric Light Orchestra (“Turn To Stone", "The Diary Of Horace Wimp", "Twilight", "Xanadu"). A brief out-of-key passage that has stayed in the handbook of baroque pop – and therefore also of glamof the power-popof the britpopa mark of recognition for discerning songwriter and their fellow connoisseurs. So what's it doing in a trap beat?

Beyond the boundaries of trap: a sonic workshop of intricate harmonies and Sufjan Stevens-style choral textures

Well, it has to be said that the label might be a misnomer. The 25-year-old Los Angeles native Benjamin Fernando Barajas Lasky – aka Quadeca – isn't exactly a trapper, and the arrangements on “Vanisher, Horizon Scraper” are something more than run-of-the-mill “beats”. That said, “Ruin My Life” amply showcases his obligatory mumbled delivery and flaunts a lovely minor fourth right in the chiaroscuro of the opening arpeggio – played over a descending progression that's part “Blackbird” and part Afterglow” by Genesis. There's plenty more packed into its five-odd minutes: choral textures in the vein of Sufjan Stevens on “Illinois“, a passage from Harry Wilkinson of Maruja, and a dizzying beat that thinks it best to hold off until nearly the third minute before making itself heard – after all, why blow all your ammo right away?

Ingredients that, to varying degrees, also recur in other tracks on the album's fourteen songs. Minor fourth included, right from the opening "No Questions Asked". Essentially a snippet of caressing folktronica, built on a sample of “Dheus lhe pague” by the giant of Musica Popular Brasileira Chico Buarque, pulls off the trick in a slightly more intricate form – but if you've picked up on what to listen for, the feel hits you right away, right there around the minute-and-a-half mark, exactly where the radiant mood turns cloudy.

Harmonic minutiae might seem like a secondary concern to the non-obsessed, but on internet forums the record's exact chord choices are a subject of study, and some have compiled and shared their annotated transcriptions on a dedicated Drive. How many other trap albums – or, for that matter, hip-hop, or electronic ones… – have you ever heard of this happening to?

From the bedroom to the underground Olympus, a now-unmistakable production signature winning over critics and major artists alike

The young Californian producer took his first promising steps on YouTube. With “Vanisher, Horizon Scraper” he finally seems to have found his stylistic Holy Grail, and it's only natural that attention and enthusiasm around the project are growing. Already “I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You”, from 2022, pushed the emo-trap of his four previous albums into brand new art-pop territory, but this new release marks a clear leap forward in scope and personality. The fusion is unprecedented, the production bears a now fully recognizable signature, and the palette of samples, chords and orchestral textures is decidedly sophisticated and technically self-aware.

It wasn't only touchstones of music-focused Internet culture, like YouTuber Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop) and the community at RateYourMusic – which back in July had already sent the album to the top of its year-end chart – who noticed this leap in scale. The praise, first and foremost, came from the artists themselves through their presence in the credits of the album: Harry Wilkinson appears on three tracks – four if you count “Casper”, featuring the full Maruja lineup – and on “The Great Bakunawa”, unmistakably, there's room for the metallic voice of rapper Danny Brown. Who then wanted Quadeca on the very first track of his latest muddled mess hyperpop “Stardust“.

Constant surprises and lost directions: the paradox of a visionary producer still searching for genuine emotional impact

So, is the hype fully justified? Perhaps not entirely. Track after track, shade after shade, the impression grows that Benjamin Fernando Barajas Lasky, at this point in his career, is an extremely ambitious and technically accomplished producer, but that most of his songs lack direction.

Both the more trap-leaning episodes like “Thundrrr” and finely chiseled indie-pop tracks like “Monday” drift from one surprise to the next without ever really varying – or even truly enriching – the mood. And “At Times Like This” burns through a radiant Miracles sample only to bog itself down in an emotionally flat chant. The coda picks things up a bit, but it's clear that, in terms of composition and expression, the arrangements' design is outrunning the songwriting.

One thing is beyond doubt, though: the sound is there. Let's hope the rest follows soon.

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02/01/2026

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Marco Sgrignoli, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition