Iceboy Violet presents their debut mixtape The Vanity Project: seven vocal tracks from one of Manchester's most exciting emergent voices on 2 B REAL. Studiously developed and honed over the last four years, The Vanity Project showcases collaborations between Iceboy Violet and a slew of their contemporaries - an impressive cross section of the North's creative landscape and the cutting edge of dance and electronica, including Space Afrika, Emily Glass, Jennifer Walton, Slikback & Nick Leon, Mun Sing, Blackhaine, Daemon & Orlandor, Exploited Body & aya, under her LOFT alias. Iceboy Violet oscillates between the moody and the sublime, drawing from a rich tradition of club MC forms and a rich, dreamy sense of lyricism. There are plenty of bottled lightning moments across the mixtape’s succinct 20 minutes; from an arresting and disorientating groove on ‘Urban Ambience’ with Space Afrika, the nearly panic-inducing simplicity of 'Vanity' with Jennifer Walton, and the dense, abrasive dread of 'Lilith', with Mun Sing, Blackhaine, Daemon & Orlandor. Iceboy Violet themselves is the constant across each track: a one-of-a-kind presence whose raw, honest monologues and ability to switch tone and flow on a sixpence lingers long after the record stops. The Vanity Tape follows several years of well-received live shows, both in Manchester (where Iceboy Violet is a member of the city's Mutualism collective, a regular presence at The White Hotel and in Soup's basement) and further afield, and a series of critically acclaimed vocal features over the last two years, including show-stopping guest appearances on aya’s im hole, Loraine James’ Reflection, 96 Back’s Love Letters, Nine Through Six and Blackhaine’s Armour. This mixtape sees Iceboy consolidating their sound into something deep, brooding and broad, building their own sound palette across a heap of tracks that feel both of the moment and out of time - like so much of Manchester's cutting edge at the moment.
